Wave properties
Types of Waves
• Wave: disturbance that transfers energy from place to place.
• Waves can be classified as mechanical and electromagnetic or transverse and longitudinal.
• Mechanical wave : A wave that moves through matter.
• The matter a wave travels through is called a medium. A mechanical wave cannot travel through a
space.
• Sound waves and ocean waves are types of mechanical wave. Sound can travel through the ocean,
but it can also travel through a solid object, such as a piece of metal, or a gas, such as the air. It
cannot travel through a vacuum such as space.
• Electromagnetic wave : A wave that can travel through matter and space.
• Examples of electromagnetic radiation include visible light, radio waves, X-rays, and microwaves.
Like a mechanical wave, electromagnetic waves transfer energy.
• Transverse Waves
• A transverse wave travels perpendicular to the direction of the source’s motion.
• The main features of a transverse wave:
The high point of a wave is its crest, and the low point is the trough. Halfway between the crest
and trough is the wave’s resting position. The distance between the highest crest and the
resting position marks the wave’s amplitude. In general, the amplitude of a wave is the
maximum distance the medium vibrates from the rest position.
• Longitudinal Waves
• longitudinal wave : A wave that travels in the same direction as the vibrations.
• Sound is a longitudinal wave. It is formed from compressions and rarefactions.
• Surface Waves
• Combinations of transverse and longitudinal waves are called surface waves.
• For example, an ocean wave travels at the surface of water. When a wave passes through
water, the water (and anything on it) vibrates up and down. The water also moves back and
forth slightly in the direction that the wave is traveling. The up-and-down and back-and-
forth movements combine to make each particle of water move in a circle
Properties of Waves
Wavelength
• Wavelength is determined by the distance it travels before it starts to repeat. The wavelength of a
transverse wave is the distance from crest to crest. For a longitudinal wave, the wavelength is the
distance from one compression to the next.
Frequency
• The number of times a wave repeats in a given amount of time is called its
frequency. You can also think of frequency as the number of waves that pass a
given point in a certain amount of time.
• Frequency is measured in units called hertz (Hz). A wave that occurs every
second has a frequency of 1 Hz. If two waves pass by in a second, the
frequency is 2 Hz.
Speed
• The speed of a wave is determined by the distance it travels in a certain amount of time.
Different waves have different speeds. For instance, a light wave travels almost a million
times faster than a sound wave travels through air!
• Waves also travel at different speeds through different materials. For example, light travels
faster through water than through glass. Sound travels more than three times faster through
water than through air.
• Wave speed=Wavelength×Frequency
Wave Energy
• Waves transmit energy from place to place. The amount of energy they transmit depends on
how much energy was input by the original source of the vibration.
• Faster vibrations transmit more energy.
• Larger amplitude vibrations also transmit more energy.
• A wave’s energy is directly proportional to frequency. When the frequency of the wave
doubles, the energy also doubles.
• A wave’s energy is also proportional to the square of its amplitude.
• Wave’s energy is measured in units called joules (J).
