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Rarefaction is the reduction of an item's density, the opposite of compression. [1] Like compression, which can travel in waves ( sound waves , for instance), rarefaction waves also exist in nature. A common rarefaction wave is the area of low relative pressure following a shock wave (see picture).
In physics, a mechanical wave is a wave that is an oscillation of matter, and therefore transfers energy through a material medium. [1] (Vacuum is, from classical perspective, a non-material medium, where electromagnetic waves propagate.) While waves can move over long distances, the movement of the medium of transmission—the material—is ...
In physics, magnetosonic waves, also known as magnetoacoustic waves, are low-frequency compressive waves driven by mutual interaction between an electrically conducting fluid and a magnetic field. They are associated with compression and rarefaction of both the fluid and the magnetic field, as well as with an effective tension that acts to ...
"Longitudinal waves" and "transverse waves" have been abbreviated by some authors as "L-waves" and "T-waves", respectively, for their own convenience. [1] While these two abbreviations have specific meanings in seismology (L-wave for Love wave [2] or long wave [3]) and electrocardiography (see T wave), some authors chose to use "ℓ-waves" (lowercase 'L') and "t-waves" instead, although they ...
Sound pressure is the difference, in a given medium, between average local pressure and the pressure in the sound wave. A square of this difference (i.e., a square of the deviation from the equilibrium pressure) is usually averaged over time and/or space, and a square root of this average provides a root mean square (RMS) value.
Quantity (common name/s) (Common) symbol/s SI units Dimension Number of wave cycles N: dimensionless dimensionless (Oscillatory) displacement Symbol of any quantity which varies periodically, such as h, x, y (mechanical waves), x, s, η (longitudinal waves) I, V, E, B, H, D (electromagnetism), u, U (luminal waves), ψ, Ψ, Φ (quantum mechanics).
Compression of solids has many implications in materials science, physics and structural engineering, for compression yields noticeable amounts of stress and tension. By inducing compression, mechanical properties such as compressive strength or modulus of elasticity, can be measured. [5]
Gasses and liquids generally exhibit less hysteresis than solid materials (e.g., sound waves cause adiabatic compression and rarefaction) and behave in a, mostly, Newtonian way. Combined, the resistive and reactive properties of an acoustic medium form the acoustic impedance. The behaviour of sound waves encountering a different medium is ...