ASTR 2010 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Rarefaction, Wind Wave, Retina
Document Summary
Review questions: what is the purpose of waves in nature, the purpose of waves is to transfer energy indirectly from one location to another. Waves give nature the ability to behave in ways that would otherwise not be possible. For example, life on earth would boil away if we were required to touch the sun to receive its life-giving energy. Water waves and waves on strings are examples of transverse waves: longitudinal waves produce disturbances that move with and against the direction of travel, producing a series of compressions and rarefactions in the material. Thus, a wavelength is the length of one wave cycle: frequency of a wave is the number of waves that pass a fixed point in a certain time interval. How does induction play a roll: electromagnetic waves are transverse waves involving electric waves and magnetic waves moving together. Electric waves are produced by the motions of electric charges or by charging and discharging objects.
