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1800-102-2727You have definitely played a game in your childhood in which one end of a rope is tightened on the wall and moves the other end up and down. Energy in the form of wave start propagating. As the time passes you have seen that every particle on the rope is moving up and down perpendicular to the length of rope but it seems like that sine wave is traveling away from you.This type of wave is called transverse wave.
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A transverse wave is a wave whose oscillations are perpendicular to the direction of the wave motion.
Examples of transverse waves:
If it is given a quick jerk, a bump (like pulse) is produced in the string as shown in Figure(b). This disturbance is sudden and it lasts for a short duration, hence it is known as a wave pulse.
If jerks are given continuously then the waves produced are transverse waves as shown in Fig (c). Same waves are produced by a plucked string in a guitar.
The speed of a transverse wave can be calculated as
Instruments such as piano and guitars use strings to produce music. Wave speed on this kind of string is proportional to the square root of the tension in the string and inversely proportional to the square root of the linear density of the string. Mathematically it is written as follows:
Where, tension in string
And linear mass density
Q. Which of the following transverse waves has a longer wavelength?
A.Wave length of (a), (b), (c), are 2 unit, 2 unit and 4 unit respectively, hence option (c) is correct.
Q. A wire has a mass of . If the wire is under a tension of , what will be the speed of transverse waves on the wire ?
A. Mass per unit length,
Tension in wire,
Speed of wave on the wire is
Q. Calculate the velocity of the transverse waves. The linear mass density of the pulse is . After this, calculate the time taken by the traveling pulse to cover a distance of on the string.
A. Tension in the string is
Mass per unit length of string is .
Therefore, velocity of the wave pulse is
The time taken by the pulse to travel the distance of is
Q.There are three wave shown in figure,
(a) the frequency in ascending order
(b) the wavelength in ascending order
A.
Q. Can transverse waves travel through vacuum?
A. Yes, a light wave is a transverse wave and it can travel through a vacuum.
Q. Can transverse waves be Polarized?
A. Yes, transverse waves show polarization while longitudinal waves doesn't.
Q. Are radio waves transverse or longitudinal waves?
A.Radio waves are electromagnetic waves and all electromagnetic waves are transverse in nature.
Q. Speed of a transverse wave depends on?
A. It depends on the medium.
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