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  • $\begingroup$ The professor also defined the intensity of a wave as the square of the amplitude of the wave, but this definition is not listed here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irradiance#SI_radiometry_units How does the "amplitude" definition of intensity relate to other definitions of intensity? $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 14, 2018 at 16:00
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    $\begingroup$ It is listed. As already noted in this answer (as the very first point, though it does require you to actually read the answer), the irradiance is the square of the amplitude of the wave, once you include the correct proportionality constant. $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 14, 2018 at 17:40
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    $\begingroup$ And if you don't care about getting it into SI units (say because you want to talk about big picture behaviors), you can ignore the constant. $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 14, 2018 at 21:24