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| An oscillation, or repeating back-and-forth motion, about an equilibrium position. |
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| A disturbance that repeats regularly in space and time and that is transmitted progressively from one place to the next with no actual transport of matter. |
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| The time required for a pendulum to make one to-and-fro swing In general, the time required to complete a single cycle. |
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| The back-and-forth vibratory motion of a swinging pendulum. |
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| A curve whose shape represents the crests and troughs of a wave, as traced out by a swinging pendulum that drops a trail of sand over a moving conveyor belt. |
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| One of the places in a wave where the wave is highest or the disturbance is greatest. |
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| One of the places in a wave where the wave is lowest, or the disturbance is greatest in the opposite direction from a crest. |
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| The distance from the midpoint to the maximum (crest of a wave, or equivalently, from the midpoint to the minimum (trough). |
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| The distance from the top of the crest of a wave to the top of the following crest, or equivalently, the distance between successive identical parts of the wave. |
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| The number of events (cycles, vibrations, oscillations, or any repeated event) per time; measured in hertz (or events per time). Inverse of period. |
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| The SI unit of frequency. One hertz (Hz) is one cycle per second. |
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| A wave with vibration at right angles to the direction the wave is traveling. |
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| A wave in which the vibration is in the same direction as that in which the wave is traveling, rather than at right angles to it. |
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| A pattern formed by the overlapping of two or more waves that arrive in a region at the same time. |
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| constructive interference |
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Definition
| Addition of two or more waves when wave crests overlap to produce a resulting wave of increased amplitude. |
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| Combination of waves where crests of one wave overlap troughs of another, resulting in a wave of decreased amplitude. |
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| Term applied to two waves for which the crest of one wave arrives at a point at the same time that a trough of the second wave arrives. Their effects cancel each other. |
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| Term applied to two or more waves whose crests (and troughs) arrive at a place at the same time, so that their effects reinforce each other. |
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| Wave in which parts of the wave remain stationary and the wave appears not to be traveling. The result of interference between an incident (original) wave and a reflected wave. |
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| Any part of a standing wave that remains stationary. |
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| The positions of a standing wave where the largest amplitudes occur. |
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| The apparent change in frequency of a wave due to the motion of the source or of the receiver. |
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| An incrase in the measured frequency of light from an approaching source; called the blue shift because the apparent increase is toward the high-frequency, or blue, end of the color spectrum. Also occurs when an observer approaches a source. |
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| A decrease in the measured frequency of light (or other radiation) from a receding source, called the red shift because the decrease is toward the low-frequency, or red end of the color spectrum. |
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| The V-shaped wave produced by an object moving on a liquid surface faster than the wave speed. |
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| A cone-shaped wave produced by an object moving at supersonic speed through a fluid. |
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| The sharp crack heard when the shock wave that sweeps behind a supersonic aircraft reaches the listener. |
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