This simulator drives the same sinusoidal source into two side-by-side wave displays: a transverse wave, where particles move perpendicular to the direction of travel (like a shaken rope), and a longitudinal wave, where particles move back and forth along the direction of travel, bunching into compressions and spreading into rarefactions (like a slinky or a sound wave in air).
• A live transverse waveform with tracked particle dots moving straight up and down as the wave shape travels sideways. • A live longitudinal chain of particles that bunch together (compression) and spread apart (rarefaction) as the same disturbance travels through them. • Three shared controls — frequency, amplitude and wave speed — that drive both displays identically so the only difference you see is the direction particles actually move. • Live readouts for wavelength, period and peak particle speed, computed directly from your slider settings.
Both wave types obey the same underlying relationship, v = f·λ, and both carry energy without carrying matter along with them — but the direction individual particles oscillate is what tells them apart. In a transverse wave (ropes, strings, light, the wiggle on a guitar string) particle motion is perpendicular to propagation. In a longitudinal wave (slinkies, sound in air, seismic P-waves) particle motion is parallel to propagation, which is why you see compressions and rarefactions instead of crests and troughs.
In a transverse wave, particles move perpendicular to the direction the wave travels — like a rope moving up and down while the wave moves sideways. In a longitudinal wave, particles move parallel to the direction of travel, bunching into compressions and spreading into rarefactions, as in a slinky or a sound wave.
Sound is a longitudinal wave. Air molecules vibrate back and forth along the same direction the sound travels, creating alternating regions of higher pressure (compression) and lower pressure (rarefaction).
Yes. Both are governed by v = f·λ, relating speed, frequency and wavelength. The equation does not care which direction particles oscillate — only the medium and the driving frequency determine speed and wavelength.
It is an idealized 1D demonstration with an infinite lossless medium and a continuous source — there is no damping, dispersion, or boundary reflection modeled here, so both waveforms continue indefinitely at constant amplitude.