Waves-1
Introduction-Any material medium can be pictured as a collection of a large number of coupled oscillators.
The collective oscillations of the constituents of a medium manifest themselves as waves. Examples of waves
include water
waves, seismic waves, electromagnetic waves.
Here, elastic forces bind the constituents to each other and, therefore, the motion of one affects that of
the other. If you drop a little pebble in a pond of still water, the water surface gets disturbed. The disturbance
does not remain confined to one place, but propagates outward along a circle. If you continue dropping
pebbles in the pond, you see circles rapidly moving outward from the point where the
water surface is disturbed. It gives a feeling as if the water is moving outward from the point of disturbance. If
you put some cork pieces on the disturbed surface, it is seen that the cork pieces move up and down but do not
move away from the centre of disturbance. This shows that the water mass does not flow outward with the
circles, but rather a moving disturbance is created. Similarly, when we speak, the sound moves outward from
us, without any flow of air from one part of the medium to another. These patterns, which move without the
actual physical transfer or flow of matter as a whole, are called waves.
In a wave, information and energy, in the form of signals, propagate from one point to another but no material
object makes the journey. All our communications depend on the transmission of signals through waves.
When we make a telephone call to a friend at a distant place, a sound wave carries the message from our vocal
cords to the telephone. There, an electrical signal is generated which propagates along the copper wire. If the
distance is too large, the electrical signal generated may be transformed into a light signal or electromagnetic
waves and transmitted through optical cables or the atmosphere, possibly by way of a communication satellite.
At the receiving end, the electrical or light signal or the electromagnetic waves are transformed back into
sound waves travelling from the telephone to the ear.
The waves we come across are mainly of three types: (a) mechanical waves, (b) electromagnetic
waves and (c) matter waves.
Common examples of mechanical waves include water waves, sound waves, seismic waves, etc. All
these waves have certain central features : They are governed by Newton’s laws, and can exist only within a
material medium, such as water, air, and rock.
Common examples of electromagnetic waves are visible and ultraviolet light, radio waves, microwaves, x-
rays etc.All electromagnetic waves travel through vacuum at the same speed c, given by c = 299, 792,458 m s–1
(speed of light). Unlike the mechanical waves,the electromagnetic waves do not require any medium for
their propagation.
Matter waves are associated with moving electrons, protons, neutrons and other fundamental particles, and
even atoms and molecules. Because these are the constituents of matter, such waves are called matter waves.
They arise in quantum mechanical description of nature. Matter waves associated with electrons are employed
in electron microscopes.
TRANSVERSE AND LONGITUDINAL WAVES
In transverse waves, the constituents of the medium oscillate perpendicular to the direction of wave
propagation and in longitudinal waves they oscillate along the direction of wave propagation.
A wave, transverse or longitudinal, is said to be travelling or progressive if it travels from one point of the
medium to another.
