Standing and Travelling WavesBY: STEVEN DANG

What is a travelling wave?

Travelling waves are wave patterns that is seen travelling through a medium and is not confined to a given space along the medium.

Standing wave: waves bounce back and forth when they reach the boundaries on either end

Travelling wave: waves move in one direction and do not move back and forth as there is no boundary. (ex. Ocean waves)

As standing waves reflect, the reflected portion will interfere with the initial portion of the wave in a orderly fashion. This interference resembles a sine graph.Ocean waves are a little different, although the sine wave patterns in ocean particles interfere with one another, they do so in an unorderly fashion and causes irregular and non-repeating motions.

When a proper frequency is used, there are points in a standing wave where the wave seems to be standing still, those points are called nodes.

Travelling waves have no nodes because there are no boundaries.

node

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no7ZPPqtZEg

Video of standing wave on a string:

Thank You!