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Longitudinal Waves

Longitudinal Waves are waves for which the direction of the vibration is parallel to the direction wave travel.Examples are sound waves and primary seismic waves.
Sound waves are compressions and rarefactions of air.When the air is pushed repeatedly the air is compressed so there are areas of high pressure and there are areas of low pressure in between called rarefactions.The particles oscillate so the compressions and rarefactions oscillate.

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Specification: AQA Physics (7407), AS-level, 3.3.1.2 Longitudinal and transverse waves. Topic: Waves.

Key terms in this lesson

Refraction
The change of direction of a wave as it crosses a boundary between two media in which it travels at different speeds.

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