Transverse and Longitudinal Waves

Most kinds of waves are transverse waves. In a transverse wave, as the wave is moving in one direction, it is creating a disturbance in a different direction. The most familiar example of this is waves on the surface of water. As the wave travels in one direction - say south - it is creating an up-and-down (not north-and-south) motion on the water's surface. This kind of wave is very easy to draw; a line going from left-to-right has up-and-down wiggles. So most diagrams of waves - even of sound waves - are pictures of transverse waves.


But sound waves are not transverse. Sound waves are longitudinal waves. If sound waves are moving south, the disturbance that they are creating is making the air molecules vibrate north-and-south (not east-and-west, or up-and-down. This is very difficult to show clearly in a diagram, so most diagrams, even diagrams of sound waves, show transverse waves.

Lancelot Ambrosio 3n2