Synchronized standing and sitting by a stadium’s crowd is an example of a transverse wave.
Mar 6, 2010 Physics 1 (Garcia) SJSU Video analysis indicates that it takes only a few dozen fans leaping to their feet with their arms up to trigger a wave. Once started, it usually rolls in a clockwise direction at a rate of about 40 feet per second, or about 20 seats per second. At any given time, the wave pulse is about 15 seats wide.
For longitudinal waves, amplitude and wave motion are parallel.
Mar 6, 2010 Physics 1 (Garcia) SJSU Wave Motion Amplitude Amplitude A crowd can do a longitudinal wave by moving side-to-side instead of up-and-down
Wavelength is distance between crests or between troughs of waves.
Mar 6, 2010 Physics 1 (Garcia) SJSU Longitudinal Transverse
The speed at which waves travel is called the wave speed .
Speed of sound = 330 m/s = 725 mi/hr
Speed of light = 300,000,000 m/s
Mar 6, 2010 Physics 1 (Garcia) SJSU Water waves at the beach move a few miles per hour
Tsunamis are ordinary water waves, just like waves in your bathtub, but because they are typically generated by deep sea earthquakes they carry huge amounts of energy and momentum, traveling at almost 500 mph while in the deep ocean.
Mar 6, 2010 Physics 1 (Garcia) SJSU The tsunami of 26 December 26 th 2004 was produced by an earthquake whose epicenter was located off the coast of Indonesia in the Indian Ocean. The death toll is estimated at over a quarter of a million persons. Animation by Vasily V. Titov