Table of Contents
What type of medium can a mechanical wave move through?
matter
The energy of a mechanical wave can travel only through matter. The matter through which the wave travels is called the medium (plural, media). The medium in the water wave pictured above is water, a liquid. But the medium of a mechanical wave can be any state of matter, even a solid.
Do transverse waves move back and forth?
(a) Transverse waves travel along the rope in the direction of the black arrow. The individual particles of the rope move back and forth (color arrows) perpendicular to the direction of the waves. An analogy to these waves can be shown in waves of a crowd.
Which type of wave do particles of the medium move in small circles?
longitudinal wave
In a longitudinal wave, particles of the medium vibrate back and forth parallel to the direction of the wave. In a surface wave, particles of the medium vibrate both up and down and back and forth, so they end up moving in a circle.
How are the particles of a wave moving?
The particles would be moving back and forth in a direction perpendicular to energy transport. The waves are moving westward, so the particles move northward and southward. A wave is transporting energy from left to right. The particles of the medium are moving back and forth in a leftward and rightward direction.
What kind of wave moves up and down?
a type of mechanical wave in which the wave energy causes matter in the medium to move up and down or back and forth at right angles to the direction the wave travels. compressional wave. a wave in which matter moves back and forth in the direction the wave is moving.
What makes a sound wave a mechanical wave?
Sound is a mechanical wave that results from the back and forth vibration of the particles of the medium through which the sound wave is moving.
What kind of wave is a surface wave?
A surface wave is a combination of a transverse wave and a longitudinal wave. A transverse wave is a wave in which particles of the medium move up and down perpendicular to the direction of the wave. A longitudinal wave is a wave in which particles of the medium move parallel to the direction of the wave.