Educator

Traveling Waves

• A mechanical wave is a self sustaining disturbance of a medium that propagates within the medium carrying energy and momentum.
• Mechanical waves require (1) a source of disturbance, (2) a medium that can be disturbed, and (3) a mechanism by which a portion of the region can influence adjacent regions.
• In a transverse wave, such as a wave on a string, the displacement is perpendicular to the direction of propagation of the wave.
• In a longitudinal wave, such as a compression wave in a spring, the displacement is along the direction of propagation of the wave.
• The speed of a mechanical wave is determined by the properties of the medium in which the wave propagates.
• A wave on a string travels with a speed equal to SQRT (T/mu), where SQRT stands for square root, T is the tension in the string, and mu is the mass of the string divided by its length.
• If a pulse strikes a fixed boundary, the reflected wave will be inverted. No inversion occurs if the boundary is free.