Skip to main content

Wave

Wave

It is a disturbance produced in a medium which passes through the medium without changing its shape and size.

Types of Wave

There are 2 types of waves:
  1. Mechanical waves: These require a medium for propagation. These waves can not travel in the absence if medium. Eg: Sound Wave
  2. Non-mechanical Waves. These waves do not require any medium for propagation.These waves can also travel in vacuum and space. Eg: Radio Waves 


Types of Mechanical Waves

Transverse Waves

  • In transverse waves, particle vibrates perpendicular to the direction of the wave.
  • Transverse waves travel in form of crest and trough.
  • Transverse waves can propagate only in solid mediums and only on the surface of liquid.
  • They can not travel inside a liquid on inside a gaseous medium.

Longitudinal Waves 

  • In Longitudinal Waves, particles vibrate along the direction of propagation of the wave.
  • Longitudinal Waves travel in the form of compression and rarefaction.
  • The density and pressure of the medium are maximum at the compression as the particles come closer to each other and minimum at the rarefaction as the particles move away from each other.
  • Longitudinal Waves can be produced in all the 3 mediums.




Characteristics of a Wave

Amplitude

Amplitude is the maximum displacement of the vibrating particle from the mean position. It is denoted by 'a'.

Time Period

The time period is the time taken to complete one vibration/ oscillation or time taken to complete 2 consecutive compressions or 2 consecutive rarefactions. It is denoted by 't' and its SI unit is second.

Frequency

Frequency is the number of vibrations or oscillations in one second. It is denoted by 'nuu'. Its SI unit is Hertz or Hz

Wave Length 

Wavelength is the distance between 2 consecutive compressions and rarefaction. It is denoted by λ (lambda) and its SI unit is metres.



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Important Mathematical Constants!

Important Mathematical Constants Mathematical constants are those numbers that are special and interesting because they come up in the various fields of mathematics like geometry, calculus etc. These mathematical constants are usually named after the person who discovered it and they are represented by a symbol that is usually picked up from the Greek alphabet. Mathematical constants are by definition very important. In this article we will take a look at certain mathematical constants that are more commonplace than others. 1.       Ï€ (pi) or Archimedes constant (~3.14159):   Ï€ is defined as the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. This is probably the most popular mathematical constant. So Ï€ is the circumference of the circle whose diameter is 1 unit. You might have seen it popping up when calculating the area of a circle (Ï€r 2 ) or the circumference of a circle (2Ï€r). It has many uses throughout mathematics from calcula...
4 comments
Read more

High School Pedia

It is an initiative by some students to spread the light of knowledge to everyone and everywhere. It was started in the year 2015 and has grown rapidly in the past few months. By the means of this website, we try to provide information on every topic that we can reach up to. You can find different articles on this website. All these articles are written in simple language so that everyone can understand it and learn from it. We at High School Pedia believe in creative learning and this is the reason why we add our own edited graphical representations in every article. Once a very learned man said, “Knowledge increases by not keeping it to yourself but by sharing it with others”. And we follow the same motto “Share to Learn”. The team of High School Pedia tries its best to provide you with the best and original content. Unlike many other websites, High School Pedia is famous for its original and inspiring content.
2 comments
Read more

Animal and Plant Cells

 Cells Cells are the basic functional, biological and structural unit of life. The word cell is a Latin word meaning ‘small room’. Cells are also known as building blocks of life.  The branch of science that deals with the form, structure, and composition of a cell is known as Cytology. All organisms around us are made up of cells. Bacteria, ameba, paramecium, algae, fungi, plants and animals are made up of cells.  Cells together form tissues. And tissue together makes an organ. History Of Cell The cell was discovered by Robert Hooke in 1665. He assembled a simple microscope and observed a very thin slice of cork under his primitive microscope. The cork was obtained from the outer covering of a tree called bark. Robert Hooke observed many little-partitioned boxes or compartments in the cork slice. These boxes appeared like a honey-comb. He termed these boxes as the cell. He also noticed that one box was separated from another by a wa...
23 comments
Read more

Working of a Car Engine

CAR ENGINE Hi, guys!  You must have thought that how a car engine works. So this is the right article for you. Describing It An engine is described by its structure and the number of the piston it is made up of. For eg: the following engine has v6 90 °. (This is just a part of engine and not the whole)    
7 comments
Read more

Levitation 2

LEVITATION II To be completely honest I was going to start this with a pun. I did think of one but it doesn’t float… I am sorry I just had to. Anyway, this is the second part to the article on super cool ways of making things levitate. Go check the first part out if you haven’t already. Actually, the first part may have become repulsive with all the magnets and stuff, but I promise this will be more attractive. Get it? No? I’ll stop now. I am just going to jump straight into it. 1.    Electrostatic Levitation I know you are probably sick and tired of magnets but they are the best way you know… This method is somewhat similar. You remember that cool science experiment you did with two straws attracting or repulsing each other based on their charge? So basically using the same principle we can make a charged object levitate. But before you try it, let me tell you it won’t be easy. Even impossible according to our Mr. Earnshaw. He even made a law (th...
4 comments
Read more

CHELSEA FC

CHELSEA FC HISTORY Chelsea FC is a football club based in West London and was founded in 1905. In the early days, the club was not much famous until they reached the top tier of English football. The increase in fanbase was seen in 1955 when the club unexpectedly won its first top tier title. In the 1980s, financial problems led the club to many disastrous seasons.
Post a Comment
Read more

Leviation

LEVITATION You know the classic magician’s trick in which he makes something or somebody levitate? Yeah well, it isn’t magic (obviously!). In fact, there are over 8 different ways in which he can make something levitate. As a side note though, all of the following methods are fairly complicated. In all honesty what he actually probably does is hang the “thing” by a string. You got conned… What is Levitation? Levitation is flying’s younger brother who was ignored when his elder brother became possible. It’s a sad story… Though in all seriousness levitation and flying are different. So please don’t be a jerk and post a comment saying, “Hey you relic! Levitation is already happening. Have you never sat in a plane before?!” Levitation is (according to Google) and I quote “the action of rising or causing something to rise and hover in the air, typically by means of supposed magical powers.” Way to go Google! I thought we already cleared up that fact that magic isn’t rea...
1 comment
Read more