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2 Travelling Waves
➔ Travelling Waves and their Properties
➔ Transverse and longitudinal waves
➔ Electromagnetic Waves
➔ Sound Waves

TRAVELLING WAVES & THEIR PROPERTIES

An oscillation (or a back and forth movement) causes waves but the oscillations themselves are
not waves! Most often, a body oscillates and generatesa wave as in the case of person shaking a
rope to create a wave.

A wave is a propagation of energy. The energy can be observed travelling outward from the
source of oscillation in evenly spaced crests (peaks) and troughs (dips). These waves can be
represents as wave fronts where the crests are observed or as rays observed perpendicular to
the wave fronts.

Take a water wave as an example: The wave fronts are the parts of the wave (water ripple) that are
moving together. Rays can be represented as the direction of the energy transfer.

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All waves have a set of characteristics

 Wavelength – The distance between successive crests or wave fronts

 Frequency – the number of oscillations per second
 Period - the time taken for the wave to travel a distance of one wavelength. i.e. time for 2
successive wave fronts or crests to pass a stationary point.
 Wave Speed – the speed at which the energy of the wave propagates in the medium

We may derive an equation for Wavelength based on some knowledge we already have about the
relationship between Period and Frequency

We know that Velocity = Displacement / Time Taken

If distance is Wavelength and Time is Period, we have Velocity of propagation V p:

𝝀
𝒗𝒑 =
𝑻

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TRANSVERSE AND LONGITUDINAL WAVES

 Transverse waves are waves where the oscillation of the medium is at right angles to the
direction of travel of the energy transfer. (E.g. light waves, a slinky that is shaken up and
down, etc.)

 Longitudinal waves are waves in which the oscillations are parallel to the direction of the
energy transfer. (E.g. sound waves or slinky shaken left and right.)

ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES

An electromagnetic wave (most often) is created when an electrically charged particle is

oscillating and thus generates a wave. Light is an electromagnetic wave.

Electromagnetic waves consist of oscillating magnetic and electric fields that are at 90 degrees to
each other and in phase. This can be visualized as two transverse waves perpendicular to each
other, propagating in the same direction.

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Electromagnetic waves form a spectrum of waves dispersed by their characteristic wavelengths
and frequency.

A very distinctive feature of EM waves is that they all travel at the speed of light! This is intuitive as
light is also an EM wave. The speed of light is a constant, usually expressed as c = 3x108 m/s.

𝒄=𝒇×𝝀

EXAMPLE:
A traveling wave has a wavelength of 2.0 cm and a speed of 75 ms -1. What is its frequency?

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SOUND WAVES

Sound waves are longitudinal waves that result from the back and forth vibration of the
particlesin a medium. These “particles” can be air molecules, water molecules, etc.

If there is no medium, sound waves cannot travel!

In sound waves we observe compressions (where particles of the medium are compressed) and
rarefactions (where particles of the medium are not compressed).Longitudinal waves can be
drawn or represented as a transverse wave for easy analysis by comparing compressions to crests
and rarefactions to troughs.

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