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MECHANICAL WAVES

Energy and momentum can be transported from one place to another through the motion of particles. Wave motion provides an alternative way for transfer of energy and momentum without the movement of the material particles.

Water waves and sound waves, for example, are mechanical waves, that travel through a deformable or elastic medium. They originate when some portion of the medium is displaced from its normal position and released.

As a wave reaches a particle in the medium, Fig. 1.1, it sets that particle into motion and displaces it, thus transferring both kinetic and potential energy to it. We can regard the particles of the medium as moving only by small distances about their previous position, without undergoing any net ...