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Sound and Frequency

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What comes to mind when someone says the word wave? Maybe you picture yourself waving your hand to say hello, or a wave on the ocean. In physics, a wave can be defined as a a repeating and periodic disturbance that travels through a medium and transfers energy from one point to another. This disturbance, or variation, can move up, down, forward or back, just think of the waves in the ocean. The medium is the substance or material that carries the wave, for instance, with ocean waves the medium would be the water itself. Wave motion transfers energy from one point to another, often without permanently moving the particles of the medium. Waves are made up of oscillations (movements back and forth at a regular speed) or vibrations. All waves have an equilibrium position, which is when all the acting forces are canceled or balanced, just picture the surface of the water completely flat and smooth.
The crest of a wave is the point on the medium that exhibits the maximum amount of positive or upward displacement from the rest position, they are the uppermost points of the wave. The trough of a wave is the point on the wave that exhibits the maximum amount of negative or downward displacement from the rest position, it is the lowest position of the wave.
There are many different kinds of waves. Two kinds of waves are transverse waves and longitudinal waves. A transverse wave is a wave that has its disturbance perpendicular to its direction of propagation; the particles do not move along with the wave; they simply vibrate up and down about their individual equilibrium positions as the wave passes by. A good way to visualize a transverse wave is a string or a rope being moved up and down. The rope is moving, but it is not going anyw...

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