WHAT ARE WAVES?

1. What are waves?
Waves are disturbances that transport energy for one location to another without transportation of matter

 2. What are mechanical waves?
Waves that require a medium to propagate from one point to another

3. Why can waves propagate?
Mechanical waves can propagate because of the interaction forces between particles of a medium

 4. in the "spring model" what do the springs represent?
Represent the interaction forces between particles.

5. Can you specify two different types of mechanicals waves?
Transverse Waves and Longitudinal Waves

6. Can you define both kinds of waves?
Longitudinal waves make the particles vibrate parallel to the direction of the wave motion; and transverse waves make the particles vibrate perpendicular to the direction of the wave motion.

7. What is "inertia"?
Inertia is the tendency of objects to resist change in motion when pushed or pulled.

8. What kind of particles tend to have more inertia?
Particles which have more inertia are those with more mass.

9. In longitudinal waves, are the particles of the medium carried along by the propagating waves?
The particles of the medium aren’t carried along by the propagating waves because each particle moves left and right in succession as the waves propagate.

10. In longitudinal waves, why don't the particles of the medium move at the same time?
Because the inertia makes particles move in succession and not at the same time.