Another quick question if y'all don't mind. When you're using a slinky to model an S-wave, why, when you push down in order to start the wave moving, does the section in front of that downward pulse move upward? I guess, more what I'm getting at is what is the mechanism of energy transfer that...
This is probably pretty basic but I've never actually seen an explanation of how exactly the sine wave relates to the physical waves it is so commonly used to represent. Could it be imagined as like the periodic thumping of a speaker where the peak of the sine graph represents maximum air...