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Can waves be both longitudinal and transverse?

April 26, 2017longitudinal transverse waves

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Can waves be both longitudinal and transverse?

1 Answer

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10 Posted

Actually yes. When looking for examples I found some nice animations on this web page: indeed some kinds of water surface waves are both longitudinal and transverse. Note that water waves are not simple harmonic traveling waves; wave equations describing different kinds of surface waves are more complicated than the basic wave equation we’ve been considering. Here’s a Wikipedia link on water waves for those who might be interested.