Wave facts for kids

A wave is like a ripple or a wiggle that moves through space or stuff. Think of it as a way for energy to travel from one spot to another. Waves are super important in our daily lives! They carry energy and information over long distances. Every wave starts with something that's wiggling or vibrating. The first waves people noticed were Ocean surface waves, like those in the sea. But later, we found out there are many other types of waves too.

What Are the Different Types of Waves?

In science and technology, a wave (physics) is a way that energy moves. This energy can create things like visible light, sound, and many other cool effects.

There are two main groups of waves:

• Mechanical waves
• Electromagnetic waves

Mechanical Waves: What Are They?

Mechanical waves are special because they need a material or a "medium" to travel through. Imagine a medium as the path or substance the wave uses to move.

Here are some examples of mechanical waves:

• Water waves, like the ripples you see in a pond.
• Sound waves, which travel through the air so you can hear.
• Waves made on a string, like when you pluck a guitar.
• Waves on a spring, if you stretch and release it.
• Earthquakes create seismic waves that travel through the Earth's ground.
• A wave in the water, such as an ocean surface wave, is a disturbance that moves across the top of the water.

Electromagnetic Waves: What Are They?

Electromagnetic waves are amazing because they do not need any material or "medium" to travel. They can even move through empty space!

Some examples of electromagnetic waves include:

• Radio waves, which carry signals for your radio and phone.
• X-rays, used by doctors to see inside your body.
• Heat waves, which you feel from the sun or a warm fire.
• Light waves, which allow you to see everything around you.

These are all different forms of electromagnetic radiation.

Images for kids

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  Surface waves in water showing water ripples

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  Sound pressure standing wave in a half-open pipe playing the 7th harmonic of the fundamental (n = 4)

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  Amplitude modulation can be achieved through f(x,t) = 1.00*sin(2*pi/0.10*(x-1.00*t)) and g(x,t) = 1.00*sin(2*pi/0.11*(x-1.00*t))only the resultant is visible to improve clarity of waveform.

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  Sinusoidal waves correspond to simple harmonic motion.

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  Standing wave. The red dots represent the wave nodes

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  Light beam exhibiting reflection, refraction, transmission and dispersion when encountering a prism

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  Sinusoidal traveling plane wave entering a region of lower wave velocity at an angle, illustrating the decrease in wavelength and change of direction (refraction) that results.

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  Schematic of light being dispersed by a prism. Click to see animation.

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  A propagating wave packet; in general, the envelope of the wave packet moves at a different speed than the constituent waves.

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  Animation showing the effect of a cross-polarized gravitational wave on a ring of test particles

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  The red square moves with the phase velocity, while the green circles propagate with the group velocity

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  A wave with the group and phase velocities going in different directions

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  Identical waves from two sources undergoing interference. Observed at the bottom one sees 5 positions where the waves add in phase, but in between which they are out of phase and cancel.

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  One-dimensional standing waves; the fundamental mode and the first 5 overtones.

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  A two-dimensional standing wave on a disk; this is the fundamental mode.

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  A standing wave on a disk with two nodal lines crossing at the center; this is an overtone.

See also

In Spanish: Onda para niños