![]() So, rivers include both flows of water, where the molecules are moving downstream, and waves, where they are oscillating. Of course, a river also includes actual waves in the physics sense, where water molecules are instigating motion in each other. They are not staying in the same location and communicating motion to a neighboring molecule. ![]() The water molecules are moving downstream. You’re watching the water molecules, bits of matter, flowing in a direction. When you’re standing on a river bank watching water rush downstream, you’re not watching a wave. Repeating myself here-a wave, as defined in physics, is not the moving of an object from one place to another. The flow of the water bears a canoe downstream. Motion is directed energy, so a wave is also a transfer of energy through a medium. ![]() In brief, a wave is a transfer of motion through a medium. The neighboring particle then pushes or pulls on the next, and so on. Of course, a physical wave doesn’t involve a mental connection it involves a physical push or pull on the neighboring particle. In a physical wave, a particular motion, an oscillation, is communicated from one bit to the next bit of some medium. The stadium wave is a good metaphor for a physical wave. Each person has decided that when my neighbor stands and then starts to sit, I’ll stand up. The up/down/up motion is called an “ oscillation.” Unlike in physics, the people aren’t physically making each other stand-it’s a mental connection. But something is moving around the stadium-a motion-up and then down. The people aren’t moving their bodies down the bench–they each sit down again in exactly the same seat. Wave in a stadium crowd, a metaphor for a physical wave. Click for animation. Each person or group stands and inspires their neighbor to stand. A wave that travels through the crowd in a football stadium is a good metaphor for a wave in physics. In a wave, a motion of one particle instigates the same motion in a neighboring particle. The accompanying animation demonstrates the motion of a seismic wave, the wave created by an earthquake, traveling through the Earth.Ĭlick on image to see animation of a wave. Due to the process of interference, standing waves are produced.A wave is a movement that propagates through a medium. The energy of the wave spreads out as it keeps moving back and forth between the two ends. The moment you pluck a string, the wave reflects off each of the aforementioned boundaries of the string. You know that the guitar string (that you plucked) is restricted on both ends – by the bridge on one side and by your finger on the fretboard on the other. Let’s consider the vibrating guitar string again.Ĭaption: Notice how a string vibrates when it’s plucked. Standing waves can only be created when their motion is restricted to a given, finite region. ![]() The vibrations created within the instrument itself (the guitar, in this case) are called standing waves. Such a vibrating instrument produces sound because the energy produced by these vibrations (in the form of sound waves) moves through the air and reaches our ears. The moment you do that, you create vibrations within the body of the guitar, which are more specifically called mechanical waves.
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