Question

What are characteristics of a wave motion?

Answer 1

Characteristics of wave motion:
1. Wave motion can be produced only in a medium having elasticity and inertia.
2. When energy is given to any part of a medium, disturbance is produced in it by repeated periodic motion of the particles about their equilibrium positions.
3. During wave motion, no matter is transferred. It is only the energy that gets transferred.
4. The velocity of the wave relative to the medium depends only on the nature of the medium and not on the nature or motion of source of disturbance.
5. The velocity of the wave is different from the velocity with which the particles of the medium vibrate about their equilibrium positions.
6. Energy gets transferred from one particle of a medium to the next particle in a fixed interval of time.
7. The energy associated with the wave is the kinetic and potential energy of the matter.