Search results
How heavy is a wave? The weight of a falling lip of salt water is tremendous and depends on salinity levels, winds, and the wave's speed, height, and width.
- Duck Diving
All you need is to get the nose of your surfboard over the...
- Duck Diving
A wave’s amplitude is the maximum distance (positive or negative) a wave reaches from its rest position. Wavelength is the distance between the same spot on two sections of a wave. A wave’s frequency can be measured by how many crests (or how many troughs) pass a location in a certain amount of time.
Jan 11, 2024 · After a lot of careful adjustments, a wave is created which has the property that the speed of the wave equals the maximum speed that a tiny segment of the string has as the wave passes through it. Describe what kinds of changes to the output of the driver (if any) will maintain the equal-speed property above.
- Overview
- Transverse waves
- Longitudinal waves
- How to understand the wave speed equation
- How waves transport energy
- Common mistakes and misconceptions
- Learn more
Review the characteristics of periodic transverse and longitudinal waves such as wavelength, crest, trough, amplitude, expansion, and compression.
Key terms
Equations
How to identify parts of a wave
Transverse waves vibrate the particles of a medium perpendicularly to the direction of wave travel to produce the features shown in Figure 1 below.
[What's the difference between the crest and the amplitude?]
Longitudinal waves form when the particles of the medium vibrate back and forth in the same direction of the traveling wave. The wave can be visualized as compressions and expansions travelling along the medium. The distance between adjacent compressions is the wavelength.
The speed v of a wave is constant for any unchanging medium, so frequency and wavelength are inversely proportional. The wave speed equation is not a new equation, it’s just a different way of writing
v=Δxt
which we can rearrange to get
Δx=vt
Wavelength λ is the distance that a wave crest (or trough) travels over one period T . We can write period in terms of frequency f . Let’s make these substitutions to get:
λ=vTλ=vf
Waves carry energy through a medium. Any displacement of the wave is resisted by a directly proportional restoring force. The work to produce a big wave amplitude requires both large forces and displacements, which results in more wave energy.
Therefore, energy transported by a wave increases with the wave amplitude.
Sometimes people forget that the only way to change wave speed is to change the properties of the wave medium. For example, waves on a string travel faster if you increase the tension of the string. Sound waves travel faster if you increase the temperature of the air. Changing the frequency or amplitude of the waves will not change the wave speed, ...
For deeper explanations of wave characteristics, see the video on properties of periodic waves.
To check your understanding and work toward mastering these concepts, check out our exercises:
•Characteristics of longitudinal and transverse waves
•Calculating wave speed, frequency, and wavelength
•Calculating frequency and wavelength from displacement graphs
•Wave energy from graphs
Jan 11, 2023 · We begin our study of waves in this first unit of Physics 7C with an introduction to waves and then a thorough development of the harmonic plane wave model, which we will use extensively to model and understand a wide variety of wave phenomena.
Practical problem: Mechanics of sea waves.00:00 Introducing the problem: Wave pressure: how to calculate weight height01:55 Methods04:16 Calculations - wavel...
- 13 min
- 7K
- Study Tips
People also ask
What is wavelength?
How much does a big wave weigh?
What is wave height in fluid dynamics?
What is individual wave height?
In fluid dynamics, the wave height of a surface wave is the difference between the elevations of a crest and a neighboring trough. [1] Wave height is a term used by mariners, as well as in coastal, ocean and naval engineering .
