Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Compression (physics) In mechanics, compression is the application of balanced inward ("pushing") forces to different points on a material or structure, that is, forces with no net sum or torque directed so as to reduce its size in one or more directions. [1] It is contrasted with tension or traction, the application of balanced outward ...
A type of longitudinal wave: A plane pressure pulse wave. Longitudinal waves are waves in which the vibration of the medium is parallel to the direction the wave travels and displacement of the medium is in the same (or opposite) direction of the wave propagation. Mechanical longitudinal waves are also called compressional or compression waves ...
Normal mode. A normal mode of a dynamical system is a pattern of motion in which all parts of the system move sinusoidally with the same frequency and with a fixed phase relation. The free motion described by the normal modes takes place at fixed frequencies. These fixed frequencies of the normal modes of a system are known as its natural ...
A seismic wave is a mechanical wave of acoustic energy that travels through the Earth or another planetary body. It can result from an earthquake (or generally, a quake), volcanic eruption, magma movement, a large landslide and a large man-made explosion that produces low-frequency acoustic energy.
Ripple in water is a surface wave. 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 ...
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). Rarefaction waves expand with time (much like ...
The standard example of a longitudinal wave is a sound wave or "pressure wave" in gases, liquids, or solids, whose oscillations cause compression and expansion of the material through which the wave is propagating. Pressure waves are called "primary waves", or "P-waves" in geophysics. Water waves involve both longitudinal and transverse motions ...
Thermodynamics. In thermodynamics and fluid mechanics, the compressibility (also known as the coefficient of compressibility[1] or, if the temperature is held constant, the isothermal compressibility[2]) is a measure of the instantaneous relative volume change of a fluid or solid as a response to a pressure (or mean stress) change.