"A wave is a propagating dynamic disturbance (change from equilibrium) of one or more quantities."
Study of waves and vibrations in physical systems.
Harmonic motion: The motion of an object back and forth around a central or equilibrium position, where the acceleration is proportional to the displacement from the equilibrium position, also known as simple harmonic motion.
Wave properties: Describes the characteristics of waves including amplitude, wavelength, frequency, and wave speed.
Superposition: The principle that when two waves meet, the displacement of the medium is the sum of the individual wave displacements.
Interference: The pattern formed when two or more waves meet and combine.
Standing waves: A wave that appears to stand still, produced by the combination of two waves of the same frequency traveling in opposite directions.
Resonance: The tendency for a system to oscillate with maximum amplitude at certain frequencies.
Damped oscillations: A type of harmonic motion where the amplitude of oscillation decreases over time due to the presence of a dissipative force.
Driven oscillations: Harmonic motion where an external force is applied to a system causing it to oscillate at the frequency of the applied force.
Wave equations: Mathematical equations that describe the behavior of waves, including the wave equation and the wave function.
Fourier series: A mathematical tool for analyzing periodic functions by breaking them down into a sum of sine and cosine waves.
"Waves can be periodic, in which case those quantities oscillate repeatedly about an equilibrium (resting) value at some frequency."
"When the entire waveform moves in one direction, it is said to be a traveling wave; by contrast, a pair of superimposed periodic waves traveling in opposite directions makes a standing wave."
"In a standing wave, the amplitude of vibration has nulls at some positions where the wave amplitude appears smaller or even zero."
"Waves are often described by a wave equation (standing wave field of two opposite waves) or a one-way wave equation for single wave propagation in a defined direction."
"In a mechanical wave, stress and strain fields oscillate about a mechanical equilibrium." "In an electromagnetic wave (such as light), coupling between the electric and magnetic fields sustains propagation of waves involving these fields according to Maxwell's equations."
"Examples of mechanical waves are sound waves, seismic waves, gravity waves, surface waves, and string vibrations."
"Electromagnetic waves can travel through a vacuum and through some dielectric media (at wavelengths where they are considered transparent)."
"Electromagnetic waves, as determined by their frequencies (or wavelengths), have more specific designations including radio waves, infrared radiation, terahertz waves, visible light, ultraviolet radiation, X-rays, and gamma rays."
"Other types of waves include gravitational waves, heat diffusion waves, plasma waves, reaction-diffusion waves, and more."
"Mechanical and electromagnetic waves transfer energy, momentum, and information, but they do not transfer particles in the medium."
"In mathematics and electronics, waves are studied as signals."
"Some waves have envelopes which do not move at all such as standing waves (which are fundamental to music) and hydraulic jumps."
"Waves with infinite domain, that extend over the whole space, are commonly studied in mathematics, and are very valuable tools for understanding physical waves in finite domains."
"A plane wave is an important mathematical idealization where the disturbance is identical along any (infinite) plane normal to a specific direction of travel."
"In linear media, complicated waves can generally be decomposed as the sum of many sinusoidal plane waves having different directions of propagation and/or different frequencies."
"A plane wave is classified as a transverse wave if the field disturbance at each point is described by a vector perpendicular to the direction of propagation." "Sound waves in fluids (such as air) can only be longitudinal."
"That physical direction of an oscillating field relative to the propagation direction is also referred to as the wave's polarization, which can be an important attribute."
"A mechanical wave is a local deformation (strain) in some physical medium that propagates from particle to particle by creating local stresses that cause strain in neighboring particles too."
"The seismic waves generated by earthquakes are significant only in the interior and surface of the planet, so they can be ignored outside it."