Thursday, May 17, 2007

Waves

There are two different types of mechanical waves, transverse and longitudinal waves. Transverse waves consist of crests and troughs because the particles in the medium are up and down. A crest is the highest point in a wave, whereas a trough is the lowest point in a wave. Longitudinal waves have compressions and rarefactions because the particles in the medium are horizontal. A compression is when the coils are close together. A rarefaction is when the coils are spread out. The amplitude of a wave is the maximum distance that the particles of the medium carrying the wave move away from their rest positions. The wavelength is the distance between two corresponding parts of a wave. The frequency (measured in hertz) is the number of complete waves that pass a given point in a certain amount of time.

1 comment:

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