Waves Flashcards
Are ripples travelling on the surface of water transverse or longitudinal waves
Transverse
Are sound waves travelling through air longitudinal or transverse
Longitudinal
What do waves do?
Transfer energy from one place to another
What energy do ripple waves transfer?
Kinetic energy
What energy do sound waves transfer?
Sound energy
What is an oscillation
Vibration of the wave
What is the direction of an oscillation in a transverse wave?
Perpendicular to the direction of energy transfer`
What is the direction of oscillations in a longitudinal wave
Direction is parallel to direction of enegy transfer
What are compressions?
Compressions are areas of high pressure do to particles being close together
What are rarefactions?
Areas of low pressure due to particles being spread further apart
Explain a difference between a transverse and longitudinalD wave (apart from oscillation direction)
All longitudinal waves need a medium to travel in e.g. air, gas or a solid whereas only some transverse waves do
for ripples on the surface of water and sound waves travelling in air what travels the wave or the medium
The wave is what travels not the medium
How can we prove this?(that the wave moves not the medium)
By using a slinky and moving it up and down representing ripples on the surface of water and putting a red Lego piece representing a water molecule you will see that the wave move however not the Lego.`
How else can we prove this?(that the wave moves not the medium)
Doing the same experiment however moving slinky sideways, we can see that the red dot does not travel through medium
What is an amplitude?
The maximum displacement of a point on a wave from its undisturbed position
