Table of Contents
What happens to the motion of particles as a wave passes through a medium?
Q: How do the particles of the medium move when a wave passes through them? A: The particles of the medium just vibrate in place. As they vibrate, they pass the energy of the disturbance to the particles next to them, which pass the energy to the particles next to them, and so on.
What happens to the particles in a longitudinal wave as the amplitude increases?
In a longitudinal wave, particles of the medium move back and forth in the same direction as the wave. Wave amplitude of a longitudinal wave is the distance between particles of the medium where it is compressed by the wave. The closer together the particles are, the greater the amplitude of the wave.
What happens to the particles when the amplitude increases?
The energy transported by a wave is directly proportional to the square of the amplitude. So whatever change occurs in the amplitude, the square of that effect impacts the energy. This means that a doubling of the amplitude results in a quadrupling of the energy.
Where do the particles move in a longitudinal wave?
A longitudinal wave is a wave in which particles of the medium move in a direction parallel to the direction that the wave moves.
What happens to the motion of particles in a surface wave?
In a surface wave, it is only the particles at the surface of the medium that undergo the circular motion. The motion of particles tends to decrease as one proceeds further from the surface.
What happens when a wave passes through a medium?
After either type of wave passes through a medium, the particles return to their equilibrium positions. Thus, waves travel through a medium with no net displacement of the particles in the medium.
As the wave travels around the stadium, each spectator stands up and sits down. Thus, the displacement of the “particles” is perpendicular to the direction the wave travels. Many other waves, such as ocean waves or Rayleigh Surface Waves are combinations of longitudinal and transverse wave motion.
Why do we notice the motion of a sound wave?
The only reason we notice a sound wave at all is because it is an ordered motion that carries energy in a particular direction. If you followed the motion of a single air molecule, it would look entirely random and there would be no trace of the sound wave.