Transverse and Longitudinal Waves | GCSE Physics | Doodle Science
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Waves are vibrations that transfer energy from place to place without matter being transferred. Think of a Mexican wave in a football crowd: the wave moves around the stadium, while each spectator stays in their seat only moving up then down when it's their turn.
There are two types of waves, transverse and longitudinal. In transverse waves, the oscillations are at right angles to the direction of the energy transfer. Light and other types of electromagnetic radiation are transverse waves.
In longitudinal waves, the oscillations are parallel to the direction of the energy transfer. Sound waves are longitudinal waves. These waves show areas of compression and rarefaction, the areas of compression are where the parts of the wave are close together, while the areas of rarefaction are where they are far apart.
Waves have an amplitude, a wavelength and a frequency. The amplitude of a wave is its maximum disturbance from its undisturbed position. Which basically means the distance between the middle and it's highest point. The wavelength of a wave is the distance between a point on one wave and the same point on the next wave. And the frequency is the number of waves that pass a certain point each second. The unit of frequency is measured in hertz, but it's also measured in kilohertz, megahertz and gigahertz for very high frequencies.
The speed of a wave is related to its frequency and wavelength, according to this equation: v=f x (lambda) where v is the wave speed in metres per second, f is the frequency in hertz and (lambda) is the wavelength in metres. For example, a wave with a frequency of 100 Hz and a wavelength of 2 m travels at 200 m/s. But that's nothing compared to light's 299 792 458 m/s. That's pretty damn fast.