Mechanical wave
Article
A mechanical wave is a disturbance that transfers energy through matter by the coordinated motion of particles. Unlike electromagnetic waves, mechanical waves require a material medium such as a solid, liquid, gas, or plasma.
Mechanical waves may be transverse, longitudinal, or a combination of both. Examples include sound waves, waves on strings, water-surface waves, seismic waves, and vibrations in structures.
Their behaviour is described by quantities such as amplitude, wavelength, frequency, period, phase, speed, and energy. Wave speed depends on the medium's density, elasticity, tension, or other restoring properties.
Mechanical waves can reflect, refract, diffract, interfere, disperse, and form standing waves. These effects are central to acoustics, geophysics, engineering, music, medical imaging, and nondestructive testing.
Source details and credits
- Source / publisher: Wikipedia
- URL type: WWW
- Credits: Wikipedia
- URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_wave