Waves

1.  What are waves?

 Waves are disturbences that transport energy from one location to another without tranportation of matter.

2.   What are mechanical waves?

They are waves that require a material medium to propagate from one point to another.

3.   Why can waves propagate?

Mechanical waves can propagate because of the interaction forces between particles of a medium.

4.   In the 'spring model', What do the springs represent?

The spring represents the interaction forces between particles.

5.  Can you specify two different types of mechanical waves?

There are transverse waves and longitudinal waves.

6.  Can you define both kinds of waves?

 Transverse waves make the particles of a medium vibrate perpendicular to the direction of the wave motion.

Longitudinal waves make the particles of a medium vibrate parallel to the direction of the wave motion.

7.   What is 'inertia'?

It's the tendency of objects to resist change in motion when pushed or pulled.

8.  What kind of particles tend to have more inertia?

Particles with greater mass have more inertia

9.   In longitudinal waves, are the particles of the medium carried along by the propagating waves?

The particles of the medium are not carried along by the propagating waves

10. In longitudinal waves, why don't the particles of the medium move at the same time?

Because they have inertia