Welcome friends!

Today, well be learning about

WAVES? You mean the movement of
flags?

No, No, a wave is not just the movement of a flag or any
other thing. Its a sort of disturbance which carries
energy and momentum.

Sir, I still dont get it. Im
bad at physics. Can you
please explain it in detail.

Sure, no problem, lets begin
students!

Imagine that youre near a pond/lake and youre throwing
pebbles/stones into it.
What do you observe?

After the stone is dropped, you can see concentric circles
moving around the point where the stone was thrown.
These concentric circles are called ripples, and
they would look something like this
Thus, as you can see, the surface of the water is disturbed by
the stone throw. If you continue to throw stones, you can
observe that the ripples move outward along a circle.
You may feel that the water is moving outward from the disturbed surface,
but actually the water doesnt move at all.
In fact, it just moves Up & Down.
So we can say that a moving disturbance is created, rather than any real
propagation of the water.
Thus, patterns such as ripples on the surface of water, which move
without the actual transfer or flow of matter as a whole, are called
waves.
Wow! So much to know about waves!
I want to know more!
Sure! and now, lets learn about what they do, how
they look, and how many types of waves are there.
Waves transport energy & the pattern of disturbance has
information that propagate from one point to another

Well? What do you think students?
But Sir, how does a wave look like?

Let us do a small experiment to see how a wave looks like:
Consider a collection of springs connected to one another as shown:

If the spring k3 is pulled and released suddenly, the disturbance travels to the other end.
It is observed that each string is pulled;k3 pulls k2 which in turn pulls k1, thereby
propagating the disturbance.
Is there more than just one type of wave?

Waves are of three types:
1. Mechanical Waves Waves which require material medium to propagate
Examples : Sound waves, seismic waves, ripples on surface of water

2. Non-Mechanical Waves (Electromagnetic waves) - Waves which dont require a
material medium to propagate. Examples: Light, Radio Waves, Ultra-violet waves
3. Matter Waves Waves associated with the constituents of matter.

For now, we shall learn in detail about Mechanical Waves
Mechanical Waves

Waves which require a material medium to propagate.

Sound waves

Ripples on the surface of water

Seismic waves

Transverse Waves
Transverse Waves:
Waves whose vibrations of the particles are perpendicular to the direction of
propagation of the wave, are called Transverse waves. Examples: Light waves, radio
waves etc.




















Longitudinal Waves
Longitudinal Waves:
Waves whose vibrations of the particles are parallel to or along the direction of
propagation of the wave, are called Longitudinal waves. Examples: Sound waves,
Seismic waves etc




















How do these waves behave?


Mechanical waves are related to the elastic property of the medium.

In Transverse waves, the constituents of the medium oscillate perpendicular
to the wave motion causing change in shape, hence theyre subject to
shearing stress.

Fluids have no shape, and thus they only yield to shearing stress.

This is the reason why transverse waves are not possible in solids & strings,
but not in fluids.

Longitudinal waves possess both bulk & sheer elastic moduli and can travel
longitudinal as well as transverse waves.

Basic parts of a wave
The maximum displacement of a wave from its equilibrium position (initial position) is
called the Amplitude of the wave.

On a plane, the maximum displacement along the positive y-axis is called the Crest,
whereas the maximum displacement along the negative y-axis is called the Trough.

The distance between two consecutive Troughs, or two consecutive Crests is called
Wavelength.

Dimensional Waves: One Dimensional Wave
Waves which travel along a straight line are called One-dimensional Waves.

The most basic One Dimensional Wave is the Sine Wave or Sinusoidal Wave.

Another example of One Dimensional Waves are the waves produced on a Stretched String.


Sine Wave
Wave on stretched string
Dimensional Waves: Two Dimensional Wave
Waves which travel along a plane are called Two-dimensional Waves.

On the plane, these waves travel along both the x-axis & the y-axis.

These waves look like this
A two-dimensional wave on a disk in
normal mode
Dispersion of light is a two-dimensional wave.
Dimensional Waves: Three Dimensional Wave
Waves which travel in space, in all three dimensions are called Three-dimensional Waves.

Sound is a good example for a three-dimensional wave.

Electromagnetic Wave is a special wave in which two waves (electric & magnetic waves) travel
perpendicular to each other and propagate forward simultaneously, together travelling in three-
dimensions.

Three-dimensional
propagation of sound
waves
Three-dimensional
propagation EM Waves
Dimensional Waves: Stationary Waves
A standing wave, also known as a stationary wave, is a wave that remains in a constant
position.

This phenomenon can occur because the medium is moving in the opposite direction
to the wave, or;

it can arise in a stationary medium as a result of interference between two waves
traveling in opposite directions;

In another case, for waves of equal amplitude traveling in opposing directions, there is,
on an average, no net propagation of energy.
Dimensional Waves: Shock Waves
A shock wave (also called shock front or simply "shock") is a type of propagating
disturbance. Like an ordinary wave, it carries energy and can propagate through a
medium or in some cases in the absence of a material medium, through a filed such as
the electromagnetic field.

A shock wave travels through most media at a higher speed than an ordinary wave.
A shock wave produced by a supersonic body (jet)
Shadowgraph of a shock wave produced by a
supersonic bullet
Matter Waves: de Broglies Waves
The Schrdinger equation describes the wave-like
behaviour of particles in quantum mechanics. Using his
theories, Louis de Broglie postulated that all particles
with momentum have a wavelength

=

where h is Planck's constant, and p is the magnitude of
the momentum of the particle, and is the wavelength of the
wave, now-a-days called as the de Broglies wavelength.
de Broglies wave propagation
Sound Waves


As waves passes through air, it compresses and expands a small region of air, called
Compressions & Rarefactions, respectively.

This causes a change in density and induces a change in pressure in that region.

These changes disturb the air molecules, thereby propagating the disturbance and thus
producing sound.


Wow! I learnt so much todayAll about waves! I am so much interested in
waves that I want to learn more.
Hmm But you have learnt enough for today. Well resume
next time

Hope you enjoyed my teaching!
Have a nice day!