Mechanical Waves Essay

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Reading Passage Mechanical Waves: Waves are everywhere. We encounter them every day. We see light waves, hear sound waves, use microwaves, and maybe even do the wave in a football stadium. Even “waving” hello to someone is a wavelike motion. In the ocean or a lake, water ripples in waves. Those waves are caused by some disturbance, such as a rock dropped in the water, a moving boat, or larger movements deep at sea. Simply put, a wave is a disturbance that transfers energy. Waves do not transfer matter, but may travel through it. The material a wave travels through to transport energy is called a medium. A medium can be solid, liquid, or gas. The wave travels through the medium, and displaces matter temporarily, but when the wave has passed, the matter returns to its original position. Waves that transfer energy through matter are called mechanical waves. Mechanical waves can be transverse or compressional (also called longitudinal). A transverse wave moves matter perpendicular to the direction of the wave. One example of a transverse wave is a water wave. The wave travels forward through the water, but displaces the water either up or down. A wave on a string is also transverse, as are earthquake s-waves. A transverse wave has high points called crests, and low points called troughs. The line exactly between those high and low points represents rest position. Crests and troughs represent the displacement of the particles that a mechanical wave travels through. The distance from the rest position to the crest, or from rest to the trough, is called the amplitude. Waves carrying more energy have higher amplitudes. A water wave with a high amplitude will be taller. The distance from one crest of the wave to the next crest is called the wavelength. Compressional waves displace matter in the same direction that the wave is traveling.

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