Longitudinal waves have a crest or not ?

AI Thread Summary
Longitudinal waves, like all waves, exhibit periodic disturbances characterized by maxima and minima, commonly referred to as "crests" and "troughs." While longitudinal waves do not have crests in the same visual sense as transverse waves, they still possess analogous features related to pressure or displacement variations. The concept of a crest can be applied to the maximum points of these disturbances, even if they are not visually represented as peaks. The discussion emphasizes that all wave types, including longitudinal and transverse, involve periodic disturbances with defined wavelengths. Understanding these characteristics is essential for grasping wave behavior in various contexts.
YOOKUNG
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longitudinal waves have a crest or not ? I am not sure.
 
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Think: what is the crest of a wave? ehild
 
ehild said:
Think: what is the crest of a wave?


ehild

wave_crest.gif
 
A wave is not a curved line... What is a wave? It is a traveling disturbance, periodic both in space and time. That disturbance can be the height of the water waves. There you see real crests and troughs. But it can be pressure, or electric or magnetic field, electric current or voltage, or displacement of a point on a string and a lot of other things. These quantities have maxima called "crest" and minima "trought" at certain positions and the distance between subsequent crests or troughs is the wavelength.

There are longitudinal and transversal waves, but all of them are some periodic disturbance with maxima and minima...

ehild
 
Last edited:
ehild said:
A wave is not a curved line... What is a wave? It is a traveling disturbance, periodic both in space and time. That disturbance can be the height of the water waves. There you see real crests and troughs. But it can be pressure, or electric or magnetic field, electric current or voltage, or displacement of a point on a string and a lot of other things. These quantities have maxima called "crest" and minima "trought" at certain positions and the distance between subsequent crests or troughs is the wavelength.

There are longitudinal and transversal waves, but all of them are some periodic disturbance with maxima and minima...

ehild


longitudinal waves have a crest or not ? >>> have/not have :smile:
 
YOOKUNG said:
longitudinal waves have a crest or not ? >>> have/not have :smile:

he's telling you that ALL waves have alternating "crest" and "trough". by simple inference, longitudinal waves have "crest" and "trough" as well.
 
YOOKUNG said:
longitudinal waves have a crest or not ? >>> have/not have :smile:

The policy of this place is that we do not give exact answers and full solutions. You get hints and have to find out the solution.

ehild
 
ehild said:
The policy of this place is that we do not give exact answers and full solutions. You get hints and have to find out the solution.

ehild

sorry, I'm not good in English. :!)
 

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