"A wave is a propagating dynamic disturbance (change from equilibrium) of one or more quantities."
Describes the characteristics of waves including amplitude, wavelength, frequency, and wave speed.
Types of Waves: Classification of waves into transverse, longitudinal, and surface waves.
Wave Equation: Mathematical equation that describes the behavior of waves.
Wave Motion: The propagation of waves through a medium.
Wavelength: Distance between two consecutive points in a wave.
Period: Time taken for a complete oscillation of a wave.
Frequency: Number of oscillations of a wave per unit time.
Amplitude: Maximum displacement of a wave from its resting position.
Phase: The position of a wave in its cycle.
Diffraction: The bending of waves around objects.
Refraction: The change in direction of a wave as it passes through a medium.
Reflection: The bouncing back of waves from a surface.
Interference: The combination of waves to produce a resultant wave.
Standing Waves: Waves that do not propagate, but vibrate in a fixed position.
Harmonic Oscillations: Oscillations that exhibit a sinusoidal behavior.
Damping: The gradual loss of energy in a wave.
Resonance: The amplification of waves at a certain frequency.
Sound Waves: Waves that propagate through air, water, and solids.
Electromagnetic Waves: Waves that propagate through space.
Light Waves: A type of electromagnetic wave that is visible to the human eye.
Polarization: The alignment of waves in a specific direction.
Doppler Effect: The change in frequency of a wave due to the relative motion of the source and observer.
Huygens Principle: A theory that explains wave propagation through the behavior of wavefronts.
Superposition Principle: The combination of waves to produce a resultant wave.
Wave Dispersion: The separation of waves based on their frequency.
Wave Packet: A group of waves that travel together with a localized shape.
Amplitude: The maximum displacement of a wave from its equilibrium position.
Wavelength: The distance between two adjacent peaks or troughs in a wave.
Frequency: The number of waves passing through a particular point in a given time interval.
Period: The time interval between two successive crests or troughs of a wave.
Phase: The relative position of two waves or oscillations.
Velocity: The speed at which a wave is propagated.
Energy: The capacity of a wave to do work.
Polarization: The direction of oscillation of the particles in a wave.
Reflection: The bouncing back of a wave when it strikes a boundary.
Refraction: The bending of a wave as it passes through a medium with varying densities.
Diffraction: The spreading out of a wave as it passes through an aperture or around an obstacle.
Interference: The combination of two or more waves to form a resultant wave with a new amplitude and phase.
Standing wave: A wave that appears to be stationary and exhibits nodes and antinodes.
Damping: The reduction in amplitude of a wave over time due to energy loss.
Resonance: The phenomenon where a system oscillates with large amplitude at a particular frequency.
"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."