Longitudinal Waves Essay

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Longitudinal wave The vibrations of the object set particles in the surrounding medium in vibrational motion, thus transporting energy through the medium. For a sound wave traveling through air, the vibrations of the particles are best described as longitudinal. Longitudinal waves are waves in which the motion of the individual particles of the medium is in a direction that is parallel to the direction of energy transport. Sound waves in air (and any fluid medium) are longitudinal waves because particles of the medium through which the sound is transported vibrate parallel to the direction that the sound wave moves. As the vibrating string moves in the forward direction, it begins to push upon surrounding air molecules, moving them to the right towards their nearest neighbor. This causes the air molecules to the right of the string to be compressed into a small region of space. As the vibrating string moves in the reverse direction (leftward), it lowers the pressure of the air immediately to its right, thus causing air molecules to move back leftward. The lower pressure to the right of the string causes air molecules in that region immediately to the right of the string to expand into a large region of space. The back and forth vibration of the string causes individual air molecules (or a layer of air molecules) in the region immediately to the right of the string to continually vibrate back and forth horizontally. These back and forth vibrations are imparted to adjacent neighbors by particle-to-particle interaction. The result of such longitudinal vibrations is the creation of compressions and rarefactions within the air. Mechanical wave Sound is a wave that is created by vibrating objects and propagated through a medium from one location to another. The sound wave is transported from one location to another by means of particle-to-particle

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