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Transverse waves are contrasted with longitudinal waves, where the oscillations occur in the direction of the wave. 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.
The transverse displacements are simply the real parts of the complex amplitudes. 1-dimensional corollaries for two sinusoidal waves The following may be deduced by applying the principle of superposition to two sinusoidal waves, using trigonometric identities.
Linearly polarized waves consist of photons that are in a superposition of right and left circularly polarized states, with equal amplitude and phases synchronized to give oscillation in a plane. [8] Polarization is an important parameter in areas of science dealing with transverse waves, such as optics, seismology, radio, and microwaves.
The amplitude of a wave may be constant (in which case the wave is a c.w. or continuous wave), or may be modulated so as to vary with time and/or position. The outline of the variation in amplitude is called the envelope of the wave.
Top: transverse intensity profile of a Gaussian beam that is propagating out of the page. Blue curve: electric (or magnetic) field amplitude vs. radial position from the beam axis. The black curve is the corresponding intensity. A 5 mW green laser pointer beam, showing the TEM 00 profile
Transverse modes occur because of boundary conditions imposed on the wave by the waveguide. For example, a radio wave in a hollow metal waveguide must have zero tangential electric field amplitude at the walls of the waveguide, so the transverse pattern of the electric field of waves is restricted to those that fit between the walls.
"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 ...
There are three types of mechanical waves: transverse waves, longitudinal waves, and surface waves. Some of the most common examples of mechanical waves are water waves, sound waves, and seismic waves. Like all waves, mechanical waves transport energy. This energy propagates in the same direction as the wave. A wave requires an initial energy ...