Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
A crest is a point on a surface wave where the displacement of the medium is at a maximum. A trough is the opposite of a crest, so the minimum or lowest point of the wave. When the crests and troughs of two sine waves of equal amplitude and frequency intersect or collide, while being in phase with each other, the result is called constructive ...
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.
Crest and trough Crest The point on a wave with the maximum value or height. It is the location at the peak of the wave cycle as shown in picture to the right. Trough The opposite of a crest, so the minimum value or height in a wave. It is the location at the very lowest point of a wave cycle also shown in picture to right. Lee
The phase velocity is the rate at which the phase of the wave propagates in space. The group velocity is the rate at which the wave envelope, i.e. the changes in amplitude, propagates. The wave envelope is the profile of the wave amplitudes; all transverse displacements are bound by the envelope profile.
A plane wave is classified as a transverse wave if the field disturbance at each point is described by a vector perpendicular to the direction of propagation (also the direction of energy transfer); or longitudinal wave if those vectors are aligned with the propagation direction. Mechanical waves include both transverse and longitudinal waves ...
Various local wavelengths on a crest-to-crest basis in an ocean wave approaching shore [10] Wavelength can be a useful concept even if the wave is not periodic in space. For example, in an ocean wave approaching shore, shown in the figure, the incoming wave undulates with a varying local wavelength that depends in part on the depth of the sea ...
In random waves at sea, when the surface elevations are measured with a wave buoy, the individual wave height H m of each individual wave—with an integer label m, running from 1 to N, to denote its position in a sequence of N waves—is the difference in elevation between a wave crest and trough in that wave.
Particle velocity (denoted v or SVL) is the velocity of a particle (real or imagined) in a medium as it transmits a wave. The SI unit of particle velocity is the metre per second (m/s). In many cases this is a longitudinal wave of pressure as with sound, but it can also be a transverse wave as with the vibration of a taut string.