How is wavelength determine for a longitudinal wave?
1 Answer
measure the distance between one point on the wave and the corresponding point on the next one.
Explanation:
A wavelength can be defined as the distance between one point on a wave and the corresponding point on the next wave.
When it comes to measuring wavelengths, the process of measuring it for a transverse wave is no different from that of longitudinal waves.
Longitudinal waves have compressions and rarefactions. A compression is a region of high pressure on a wave (and it can be related to the crest of a transverse wave). Whereas a rarefaction is a region of low pressure on a wave (and it can be related to the trough of a transverse wave).
So the distance between one compression to the next or from rarefaction to the next is the easiest way of measuring wavelength.
However the distance between any 2 identical points on the wave can be measured to obtain the wavelength.
hope that helped
:-)
