Lesson One : Activities and Quizzes
Activity 3: Transverse and longitudinal waves comparedRequired materials: A wide container of water (like a dish or even a bucket), a rock (or other small, heavy object), a SlinkyŽ, 4-8 golf balls, a golf club, and a computer with a projector.
Procedure: The purpose of this activity is to give students a better understanding of the differences between transverse and longitudinal waves by demonstrating waves of both types. This activity is performed with the students arranged in a semicircle. After each wave is demonstrated, the class should be asked to identity it as either transverse or longitudinal.
Wave 1: Call up two students as volunteers and have each of them take an end of the SlinkyŽ and pull it taught between them. Have one student shake his end of the SlinkyŽ up and down.
Wave 2: Have the two students let the SlinkyŽ go still and lay it on the ground between them, still maintaining a hold on either end of the SlinkyŽ and keeping it stretched taught. Have one student push and pull her end of SlinkyŽ (i.e. vibrate the end of it back and forth) so that pulses travel along the length of the SlinkyŽ.
Transverse Wave
Wave 3: Call up another volunteer and have him line up the golf balls along the floor. The balls should be in as neat a line as possible. Then have the student gently tap one end of the line with the club and watch as a ball from the other end is knocked loose from the line.
Wave 4: With all the students sitting in a semicircle, instruct the first student in the line to stand up and then set down. Instruct the next student to stand up and set down as soon as the previous student has set down. Instruct the next student in line to so the same and so on all the way to the end of the line. This activity is often performed at sporting events or in other large auditoriums and is aptly referred to as "The Wave."
Wave 5: With all the students once again in a circle, instruct the first student to lean over and gently touch the shoulder of the student next to him with his own shoulder (all the students should remain seated). As soon as the second student has been touched by the first, he should lean over and do the same to the student sitting next to him and so on down the line.
Wave 6: Identify this wave:
Wave 7: Identify this wave: