Anatomy of a Transverse Wave?

Tuesday, June 16, 2020


A transverse wave has oscillations that move perpendicular to the movement of the wave.
Let’s look at the anatomy of a transverse wave.

  • The highest point of the transverse wave is called the crest.
  • The lowest point of a transverse wave is the trough.
  • The resting point also called the undisturbed position is the position the medium would take if there were no waves created. You can think of the resting point as a completely flat body of water.
  • It is represented on a graph by a line through the center of the wave.
  • The propagation is the direction of the wave.
  • The wavelength which is represented by the symbol lambda is the distance of one wave, it is measured either from trough to trough or from crest to crest.
  • Amplitude is a measure of the energy of a wave and is the distance that the crest rises above the resting point or the distance that the trough is below the resting point. The more energy a wave carries the greater the amplitude.

Frequency is the number of wavelengths that pass a fixed point each second. Wave frequency is measured in hertz Hz.
For a transverse wave, you can count the number of crests or troughs that pass a certain fixed point.
A shorter wavelength will result in a higher frequency than a longer wavelength.

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