5.23 Transverse Wave
5.23 Transverse Wave
- Describe transverse waves.
- Identify the crests and troughs of a transverse wave.
- Define S waves.
Can you guess what this picture shows? Here’s a hint: the objects in the picture have been magnified, and one of
them is moving rapidly. The objects are guitar strings, and the moving string is the one on the bottom right. The
string is moving because it has just been plucked. Plucking the string gave it energy, which is moving through the
string in a mechanical wave. A mechanical wave is a wave that travels through matter. The matter a mechanical
wave travels through is called the medium. The type of mechanical wave passing through the vibrating guitar string
is a transverse wave.
What Is a Transverse Wave?
Atransverse waveis a wave in which particles of the medium vibrate at right angles, or perpendicular, to the
direction that the wave travels. Another example of a transverse wave is the wave that passes through a rope with
you shake one end of the rope up and down, as in theFigure5.45. The direction of the wave is down the length of
the rope away from the hand. The rope itself moves up and down as the wave passes through it. You can watch a
video of a transverse wave in a rope at this URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZIr9mpERbU.
MEDIA
Click image to the left for use the URL below.
URL: http://www.ck12.org/flx/render/embeddedobject/82407