Wave movements are recorded on the surface of the water.
The action and effect of moving is called movement . The verb move, for its part, refers to making a body leave one place and occupy another, or to shake a thing or a part of the body. Movement, therefore, can be linked to the state of bodies as they change places.
Wave , on the other hand, is that which undulates or extends in the form of waves. It should be remembered that a wave is a movement that propagates in a fluid, a curve that occurs in certain flexible things or a tension disturbance.
Concept of wave motion
All these definitions allow us to understand the notion of wave motion , which is that movement that propagates through waves and that involves the transport of energy , but not matter . Examples of wave movements are found on the surface of water and in the particles of an elastic medium.
It must be established that waves can be classified based on different criteria. Thus, for example, if we take into account their periodicity, we could group them into periodic, which occur in repetitive cycles, or non-periodic.
However, they are also classified into these other modalities:
• Based on its propagation, vector or scalar.
• Regarding their means of propagation, they can be mechanical or non-mechanical.
• Regarding its wave front, we can speak of three-dimensional, one-dimensional or two-dimensional waves.
In an elastic medium a wave movement can occur.
Wave motion, then, is the propagation of a disturbance of a certain property of a medium , such as density, pressure or magnetic field. The medium that experiences the disturbance can be water, air or even vacuum.
Classification according to wave type
Physics students are the ones who see the need to undertake the study of the aforementioned wave movement, which leads them to learn and discover that basically it can be of two types:
• When it comes to longitudinal waves, what occurs is that the medium moves in the same direction of propagation.
• In the case of transverse waves, what happens is that the medium moves at right angles to what would be the direction of propagation.
Characteristics and particularities of wave movement
In addition to everything stated above, another important series of elements and issues related to wave movement should be noted:
• The unit of frequency used to measure it is the Hertz. This is represented by Hz and is equivalent to one cycle per second.
• In order to thoroughly analyze the movement at hand, it is also essential to take into account other criteria such as elongation or the node.
It is possible to distinguish various elements in the wave of wave motion. We can speak, in this sense, of amplitude (the distance between the point of maximum elongation and the midpoint of the wave), crest (the point of maximum elongation), trough (the lowest point), period (the time how long it takes for a wave to go from one point of maximum amplitude to the next), frequency (the number of times the vibration occurs per unit of time) or wavelength (the distance between the same point of two consecutive undulations) .