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Unit 6: Sound Page 21
partner. Your partner’s hands could the wave will move to the left
feel the energy you put into the and/or right of the particle. The
rope in the first place. The work word perpendicular means that if
you did on the rope was one thing is up and down, the
transferred by the rope wave and other thing is left and right. A
did work on your partners hand. transverse wave is a wave where
You have moved energy across the the particle moves perpendicular to
room! the medium. The medium is the
material that’s in the wave. The
Now… let’s add another element to medium in this case is the rope.
this experiment…
Transverse Waves
1. Put a piece of (colored if
possible) tape in about the middle
of the rope.
2. Tie your rope to something or
let your friend hold on to one end
of it.
For example, in a water wave, the
3. Now pull the rope so that it is a medium is the water. Your hand
bit slack but not quite touching the moved up and down, but the wave
floor. created by your hand moved
across the room, not up. The wave
4. Vibrate your arm. Move your moved perpendicular to the motion
arm up and down once and watch of your hand. Did you take a look
what happens. at the tape? The tape represents a
particle in the wave. Notice that it
5. Now, vibrate your arm a bunch
too, was going up and down. It
of times (not too fast) and see the
was not moving along the wave. In
results. Notice the action of the
any wave the particles vibrate,
tape in the middle of the rope.
they do not move along the wave.
What you’ve done is create a
Longitudinal Waves
transverse wave. With a transverse
wave, if the particle (in this case
Now that you’ve seen a transverse
your hand) moves up and down,
wave, let’s take a look at a
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