Maya ties a rope to a wall and shakes her end straight up and down. A wave travels along the rope toward the wall. How does the rope itself move, and what type of wave is this?

Ben pushes the end of a long spring forward and pulls it back along its length. Squeezed-together regions travel from his hand to the far end. What type of wave is this, and why?

A duck floats on a still pond. A wave passes under the duck and keeps moving toward the far bank. What happens to the duck, and why?

An electric bell rings inside a sealed glass jar. As air is pumped out of the jar, the sound fades away, even though the hammer can still be seen striking the bell. What does this show about sound?

A science book uses the words crest and trough to describe the high and low points of a wave. Which wave type do those words belong to, and why?

A guitar string vibrates from side to side. The sound it sends out squeezes and spreads the air along the same direction the sound travels. How should the two waves be named?

At a stadium, fans stand up and sit down in turn while the "wave" travels around the seats. Each fan stays at their own seat. What does this model show well?

Waves of many kinds pass through water, air, ropes and springs. What does every one of these waves move from one place to another?

A red ribbon is tied to the middle of a long rope. Students send five waves along the rope. Each time, the ribbon rises, drops, and ends up back where it started. What does this show?

A swimmer under the water hears the engine of a boat far away. How does that sound travel through the water?

A domino stands at the far end of a long spring lying on a table. A student pushes the near end once, a wave runs along the spring, and the domino falls over. What best explains this?

Leo claims that sound is a longitudinal wave. What evidence best supports his claim?

Two waves are described. In Wave A the particles move at right angles to the wave's path. In Wave B the particles move back and forth along the wave's path. How should the two be named?

A longitudinal wave travels through the air in a room. What parts does this wave have?

A class uses a coiled spring pushed back and forth as a model of a sound wave in air. What does this model leave out?

Ana shakes one end of a rope once and a single wave travels to the other end. Where did the energy in that wave come from?

A wave traveling along a rope gets smaller and smaller until the rope is still again. What happened to the wave's energy?

The distance from the top of one ripple on a pond to the top of the next ripple is called the wavelength.

On a wave diagram, a dashed line marks the wave's resting level when no wave is passing through. Where is the trough located compared to that resting line?

When a sound wave travels through air, the air particles vibrate back and forth in the same direction the sound is traveling.