What is the difference between a transverses wave and a longitudinal wave?

Answer 1

Briefly:

Longitudinal Wave - A wave in which the medicum vibrates in a direction parallel (longitudinal) to the direction which the wave travels. Sound waves are longitudinal.

Transverse Wave - A wave in chich the medicum vibrates in a direction perpendicular (transverse) to the direction in which the wave travels. Light and water waves are transverse.

For more in details read below:

Briefly, a longitudinal wave is any wave where the quantity that is oscillating is associated only with the direction of propagation of the wave. There is no variation of the wave which is associated with any particular direction perpendicular to the direction of propagation.

Similarly, a transverse wave is one which exhibits oscillations associated with a direction perpendicular to the direction of motion.

More simply (though less precisely), if the vibrations associated with a wave go up and down or back and forth relative to the direction of motion, then it is transverse. Otherwise, if there is no particular direction associated with the quantity oscillating or if the direction of the oscillating quantity is along the direction of motion, then it is longitudinal.

Difference:

The difference between longitudinal and transverse waves is entirely contained in the direction associated with the quantity that is oscillating or vibrating.

Similarity:

Longitudinal waves are similar to transverse waves in all aspects except the direction of oscillation. They are both characterized by an amplitude, a wavelength, frequency, velocity and direction and even a phase. The add and interfere and reflect and refract, both with the same laws of physics. They may be plane waves or spherical waves or whatever that is consistent with the physics that is generating them. (Transverse spherical waves are a bit tricky and describing them mathematically gets complicated, but in the end they work out correctly.)

We speak of two types of waves, longitudinal and transverse, because almost all waves that we encounter can be categorized as one or the other. (Not all, but almost all waves are one or the other.)

Examples:

Ripples on water are transverse, the water surface goes up and down with a motion perpendicular to the direction of the wave. A vibrating string on a musical instrument is a transverse wave since the string moves up and down while the direction of the associated wave is the direction of the string.

Longitudinal waves are less easily visualized and sound waves in air are always used as the basic example. A sound wave consists of a sequence of pressure surfaces where surfaces showing pressure increases are between pressure decreases and pressure varies periodically in space and time and wave motion (Motion is the movement of these surfaces.) in a direction perpendicular to the surfaces. The pressure does not have a direction, but varies along the direction of the wave, so it is a longitudinal wave.

Additional Descriptions:

In a sound wave there is, of course, something moving or vibrating and that is the motion of the air or whatever medium it is traveling through. In air, to create the high pressure surfaces, air molecules move from the low pressure pressure surfaces towards higher pressure regions and then reverse direction and go to low pressure and continue through that to high pressure and reverse again. The direction of motion of the air flow is along the direction of movement of the wave, so that provided another reason for identifying sound as a longitudinal wave.

In another example, a wave is traveling along a spring where the wave pattern is produced by the coils of the spring moving closer together and further apart and those motions traveling along the spring in a regular sinusoidal pattern. This is directly analogous to the properties of a sound wave and it is, therefore, an example of a longitudinal wave.

Both this spring example and sound waves are examples of compression waves. These compression waves are longitudinal, but there are other longitudinal waves that are not associated with compressing matter or springs.

We can illustrate another longitudinal wave using our imagination. One could imagine a wire with lights where the color at each point on the rope varied continuously and sinusoidal as the oscillating pattern moves along a wire. (Red becomes blue becomes red becomes ...) This pattern where the color spectrum varied in space and time might be called a color wave. Such a wave has no direction associated with the oscillating character other than the position along the wire, so the direction of motion is the only special direction. Thus, the imaginary color wave would be longitudinal.

As the final example, light or any other form of electromagnetic radiation is a transverse wave. The electric and magnetic fields that vary in space and time have a direction pointed perpendicular to the direction of propagation.

End note 1. Technically, not all waves propagate and some waves are standing waves. Standing waves are, however, a special case which occurs when two waves are combined, in which case the two waves will separately have a well defined direction and therefore allow the classification of them as longitudinal or transverse. In what follows, it will be assumed we are discussing propagating waves.)

End note 2. A wave is an oscillating process that moves through space. Normally a wave travels through a medium, though light is a wave that does not require a medium. While waves can have complex shapes, we have found that nearly all wave processes can be represented as being built up of plane waves, i.e. waves which vary in a sinusoidal manner and move only in one direction.

End note 3. There are other kinds of waves, torsional waves is one example and shear waves are another. In solids, elastic waves do not have to be compression waves, they can also be shear waves where waves os matter vibrate up and down, perpendicular to the direction of motion. While we normally call a wave a sound wave because it is in the frequency range where a human can hear it, really all compression waves are the same as sound waves in their basic physics. The shear waves that can exist in a solid are examples of transverse waves and, if they are in the frequency range of humans, we can call them transverse sound waves. That is a little obtuse, but technically correct.

End Note 4. There are more technicalities. As the study of waves gets more sophisticated, so does the mathematics. The categorization of waves as transverse or longitudinal eventually becomes inadequate. Waves are mathematically described as scalars or vectors or more complex objects that vary sinusoidally in space and time.

In transverse waves particals viberate perpendicularly to the direction of propagation. Example- light in longitudenal waves they viberate in the direction of propagation. Example- sound

The Wave In which The particles of the medium vibrate in a direction perpendicular to the medium propagation of the wave are called as transverse wave....

Answer 2

A transverse wave vibrates perpendicular to the wave direction of propagation and the longitudinal wave vibrates parallel to the wave direction of propagation.

Examples:

Ripples on the surface of water provide an example of a transverse wave because the medium (the water) is moving up and down while the wave move horizontally.

Sound in air is a longitudinal wave, the medium (air) is compressed or expanded with the regions of air moving forward and backward relative to the direction the sound moves.

Answer 3

Briefly:

Longitudinal Wave - A wave in which the medicum vibrates in a direction parallel (longitudinal) to the direction which the wave travels. Sound waves are longitudinal.

Transverse Wave - A wave in chich the medicum vibrates in a direction perpendicular (transverse) to the direction in which the wave travels. Light and water waves are transverse.

For more in details read below:

Briefly, a longitudinal wave is any wave where the quantity that is oscillating is associated only with the direction of propagation of the wave. There is no variation of the wave which is associated with any particular direction perpendicular to the direction of propagation.

Similarly, a transverse wave is one which exhibits oscillations associated with a direction perpendicular to the direction of motion.

More simply (though less precisely), if the vibrations associated with a wave go up and down or back and forth relative to the direction of motion, then it is transverse. Otherwise, if there is no particular direction associated with the quantity oscillating or if the direction of the oscillating quantity is along the direction of motion, then it is longitudinal.

Difference:

The difference between longitudinal and transverse waves is entirely contained in the direction associated with the quantity that is oscillating or vibrating.

Similarity:

Longitudinal waves are similar to transverse waves in all aspects except the direction of oscillation. They are both characterized by an amplitude, a wavelength, frequency, velocity and direction and even a phase. The add and interfere and reflect and refract, both with the same laws of physics. They may be plane waves or spherical waves or whatever that is consistent with the physics that is generating them. (Transverse spherical waves are a bit tricky and describing them mathematically gets complicated, but in the end they work out correctly.)

We speak of two types of waves, longitudinal and transverse, because almost all waves that we encounter can be categorized as one or the other. (Not all, but almost all waves are one or the other.)

Examples:

Ripples on water are transverse, the water surface goes up and down with a motion perpendicular to the direction of the wave. A vibrating string on a musical instrument is a transverse wave since the string moves up and down while the direction of the associated wave is the direction of the string.

Longitudinal waves are less easily visualized and sound waves in air are always used as the basic example. A sound wave consists of a sequence of pressure surfaces where surfaces showing pressure increases are between pressure decreases and pressure varies periodically in space and time and wave motion (Motion is the movement of these surfaces.) in a direction perpendicular to the surfaces. The pressure does not have a direction, but varies along the direction of the wave, so it is a longitudinal wave.

Additional Descriptions:

In a sound wave there is, of course, something moving or vibrating and that is the motion of the air or whatever medium it is traveling through. In air, to create the high pressure surfaces, air molecules move from the low pressure pressure surfaces towards higher pressure regions and then reverse direction and go to low pressure and continue through that to high pressure and reverse again. The direction of motion of the air flow is along the direction of movement of the wave, so that provided another reason for identifying sound as a longitudinal wave.

In another example, a wave is traveling along a spring where the wave pattern is produced by the coils of the spring moving closer together and further apart and those motions traveling along the spring in a regular sinusoidal pattern. This is directly analogous to the properties of a sound wave and it is, therefore, an example of a longitudinal wave.

Both this spring example and sound waves are examples of compression waves. These compression waves are longitudinal, but there are other longitudinal waves that are not associated with compressing matter or springs.

We can illustrate another longitudinal wave using our imagination. One could imagine a wire with lights where the color at each point on the rope varied continuously and sinusoidal as the oscillating pattern moves along a wire. (Red becomes blue becomes red becomes ...) This pattern where the color spectrum varied in space and time might be called a color wave. Such a wave has no direction associated with the oscillating character other than the position along the wire, so the direction of motion is the only special direction. Thus, the imaginary color wave would be longitudinal.

As the final example, light or any other form of electromagnetic radiation is a transverse wave. The electric and magnetic fields that vary in space and time have a direction pointed perpendicular to the direction of propagation.

End note 1. Technically, not all waves propagate and some waves are standing waves. Standing waves are, however, a special case which occurs when two waves are combined, in which case the two waves will separately have a well defined direction and therefore allow the classification of them as longitudinal or transverse. In what follows, it will be assumed we are discussing propagating waves.)

End note 2. A wave is an oscillating process that moves through space. Normally a wave travels through a medium, though light is a wave that does not require a medium. While waves can have complex shapes, we have found that nearly all wave processes can be represented as being built up of plane waves, i.e. waves which vary in a sinusoidal manner and move only in one direction.

End note 3. There are other kinds of waves, torsional waves is one example and shear waves are another. In solids, elastic waves do not have to be compression waves, they can also be shear waves where waves os matter vibrate up and down, perpendicular to the direction of motion. While we normally call a wave a sound wave because it is in the frequency range where a human can hear it, really all compression waves are the same as sound waves in their basic physics. The shear waves that can exist in a solid are examples of transverse waves and, if they are in the frequency range of humans, we can call them transverse sound waves. That is a little obtuse, but technically correct.

End Note 4. There are more technicalities. As the study of waves gets more sophisticated, so does the mathematics. The categorization of waves as transverse or longitudinal eventually becomes inadequate. Waves are mathematically described as scalars or vectors or more complex objects that vary sinusoidally in space and time.

In transverse waves particals viberate perpendicularly to the direction of propagation. Example- light in longitudenal waves they viberate in the direction of propagation. Example- sound

The Wave In which The particles of the medium vibrate in a direction perpendicular to the medium propagation of the wave are called as transverse wave....

Answer 4

transverse waves move up and down like this ~

longitudinal waves contract and expand rather than moving up and down]

light is the only transverse wave