- Moving your hand to and fro in greeting or as a signal.
- A sudden occurrence of or increase in a phenomenon or emotion.
- In physics, a wave is an oscillation accompanied by a transfer of energy that travels through a medium.
Formation of waves on the surface of water
- Wave motion transfers energy from one point to another, which displace particles of the transmission medium that is, with little or no associated mass transport.
- Waves consist of oscillations or vibrations around almost fixed locations.
- There are two main types of waves, Mechanical waves propagate through a medium, and the substance of this medium is deformed.
- Restoring forces then reverse the deformation.
- For example: Sound waves propagate via air molecules colliding with their neighbors. When the molecules collide, they also bounce away from each other.
- This keeps the molecules from continuing to travel in the direction of the wave.
- The second main type, electromagnetic waves, do not require a medium. Instead, they consist of periodic oscillations of electrical and magnetic fields originally generated by charged particles and can travel through a vacuum.
- These types vary in wavelength and include radio waves, microwaves, infrared radiation, visible light, ultraviolet radiation, X-rays and gamma rays.
