Mechanical Waves
- Definition: Waves that need a medium (like air, water, or a solid) to travel.
- Formation: Caused by vibrations or oscillations within a material medium.
- Key Aspects:
- Types: Can be either transverse or longitudinal.
- Speed: Their speed depends on the physical properties of the specific medium they are traveling through (e.g., density, elasticity).
- Vacuum: Cannot travel through a vacuum.
- Examples: Sound waves, water waves, seismic waves.
Electromagnetic Waves
- Definition: Waves that do not require a medium to travel.
- Formation: Produced by changes in electric and magnetic fields.
- Key Aspects:
- Types: Always transverse waves.
- Speed: Travel at the speed of light (3.0×108 m/s) in a vacuum. Their speed changes when traveling through transparent mediums, depending on the medium’s refractive index.
- Vacuum: Can travel through a vacuum.
- Examples: Radio waves, microwaves, light waves, X-rays.