Blog-Waves: R. Shore

Waves

A wave is anything that is a disturbance that transfers energy through an object or empty areas. There are many different types of waves. Some are water waves, light waves, microwaves, radio waves and sound waves. Energy can also be swept away from its wave source. Take a rock for example. If you throw a  rock in a pond the splash will carry energy away from where the rock was thrown into the body of water.

There are two very important types of waves. Those waves are transverse waves and longitudinal waves. When you push a spring back and forth it is almost the same thing as shaking a rope so that it moves up in down. The highest point of a transverse wave is a crest where the lowest point is a trough. In a longitudinal wave, when the particles are tightly compact it is called a compression and where the particles are less compact it is called a rarefaction.

A medium is an object that a wave can travel through. Mediums can be a solid, liquid or gas and its plural noun is media. When a particle vibrates it passes its energy to another particle and this other particle vibrates as well. This is how energy is transmitted through a medium. Other waves that need a medium are sound waves, ocean waves and mechanical waves. A mechanical wave in the Earth’s crust would be an earthquake.