Physics Lens

Longitudinal and Transverse Waves

I modified Tom Walsh’s original GeoGebra app to add a moveable single oscillating particle for students to observe its movement along a longitudinal wave and a transverse wave.

The app can also be used to show how the displacement of a particle in a longitudinal wave can be mapped onto a sinusoidal function, similar to the shape of a transverse wave. For example. a displacement of the particle to the right can be represented by a positive displacement value on the displacement-distance graph.

You can choose to select the particle that you want to focus on by using the slider.

For a full screen view, visit https://www.geogebra.org/m/auyft2pd

Here is an animated gif for those who prefer to insert it into a powerpoint slideshow instead:

Animation of longitudinal wave and transverse wave

For embedding into SLS or any platform that supports iframes.

<iframe scrolling="no" title="Progressive Waves" src="https://www.geogebra.org/material/iframe/id/auyft2pd/width/640/height/480/border/888888/sfsb/true/smb/false/stb/false/stbh/false/ai/false/asb/false/sri/true/rc/false/ld/false/sdz/false/ctl/false" width="640px" height="480px" style="border:0px;"> </iframe>

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