Waves show up in many different forms. In the last lesson we saw how the graph of a wave (a sinusoid) can be used to visually represent the motion of a mass on a spring or a pendulum.

But there are also real, physical waves (mechanical waves). You can see physical waves travel through water, strings and other materials. There are other physical waves as well, like sound waves and light waves. In this lesson we'll get an overview of waves and look at transverse and longitudinal waves, wave speed, frequency and period.

We'll also cover standing waves. Unlike most physical waves that are allowed to travel through a string or through the air, standing waves are confined to only one section of a string or air in a tube. By confining the wave, it will reflect back and forth within that section, giving us some interesting behavior.

- Waves

• Khan Academy - Introduction to waves
• Khan Academy - Amplitude, period, frequency and wavelength
• Khan Academy - The equation of a wave

- Wave interference

• Flipping Physics - Wave Superposition
• Khan Academy - Wave interference
• Khan Academy - Constructive and Destructive Interference

- Standing waves

• Professor Dave - Standing Waves and Harmonics
• Flipping Physics - Standing Waves Introduction
• Khan Academy - Standing waves in open tubes
• Khan Academy - Standing waves in closed tubes

• Organic Chemistry Tutor - Mechanical Waves
• Organic Chemistry Tutor - Standing Waves on a String
• Organic Chemistry Tutor - Standing Waves in Tubes

• Veritasium - The Original Double Slit Experiment
• Veritasium - The Absurdity of Detecting Gravitational Waves
• Steve Mould - A better description of resonance with fire tubes

• Wave Interference and Superposition
• Wave Interference and Superposition 2
• Standing Waves
• Doppler Effect
• Superposition and Standing Waves
• Longitudinal and Transverse Waves

Other Resources

Waves show up in many different forms. In the last lesson we saw how the graph of a wave (a sinusoid) can be used to visually represent the motion of a mass on a spring or a pendulum.

But there are also real, physical waves (mechanical waves). You can see physical waves travel through water, strings and other materials. There are other physical waves as well, like sound waves and light waves. In this lesson we'll get an overview of waves and look at transverse and longitudinal waves, wave speed, frequency and period.

We'll also cover standing waves. Unlike most physical waves that are allowed to travel through a string or through the air, standing waves are confined to only one section of a string or air in a tube. By confining the wave, it will reflect back and forth within that section, giving us some interesting behavior.