Longitudinal and Transverse waves

Longitudinal waves move in a horizontal motion and transverse waves move in a vertical motion. Longitudinal and transverse waves are formed when they pass through a medium. In longitudinal waves the displacement of the medium is parallel to the propagation of the wave. Unlike longitudinal waves a transversal wave is the total opposite. Instead, these waves move perpendicular to the propagation. In addition, longitudinal waves are usually more spread out than transverse One last difference between the two types of waves are that longitudinal waves have particles that do not move down the tube, instead they simply move around in their position. However, transverse waves have particles that move up and down. An example of a transverse wave is a ripple in a pond. Another example could be a wave on a string, or even a wave in a solid. But usually solids have a mixture of both a transversal and longitudinal wave. An example of a longitudinal wave is a sound wave in the air. Another example of a wave that involves transverse and longitudinal waves are the waves in water or an ocean. Last but not least transversal and longitudinal waves both have a trough and a crest. The crest is the highest point of the wave and the trough is the lowest point. I hope after having so much fun after reading this article you will stop by whenever you see a wave and try to identify it.

For more information visit: http://www.kettering.edu/~drussell/Demos/waves/wavemotion.html