Beats

Let us asume that we have at the same point two harmonic oscillations (say two pure sounds):
x = A1 cos(ω1 t + δ1) + A2 cos(ω2 t + δ2) = 2 A2 cos(ε t + μ) cos(ω t + ξ) + (A1 - A2) cos(ω1 t + δ1),
where
ε ≡ (ω1 - ω2)/2,
μ ≡ (δ1 - δ2)/2,
ω ≡ (ω1 + ω2)/2,
ξ ≡ (δ1 + δ2)/2.
Obviously an equivalent expression can be obtained by exchanging the indices 1 and 2 in the last expression.