how do waves look in 3 dimensions? every representation i've

File: Spherical_Wave.gif (1018KB, 560x420px) Image search: [Google]

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like this makes sense. why isn't this the way it's shown?

>>8387626
It depends on the type of wave.

Longitudinal waves, like sound waves, look like stuff moving back and forth along the wave axis

Transverse/Dipole waves, like electromagnetic waves, are in fact moving back and forth in a plane parallel to the wave axis. This is why light has a polarization.

Quadrupole waves, like gravity waves, are more complicated - in cross-section (xy plane, wave traveling along z axis), imagine a circle squishing in the x and stretching in the y to form a vertical ellipse, then squishing in the y and stretching in the x to form a horizontal ellipse.

>>8387626
Waves are just some quantity that oscillate in value over time and/or space.

E.g. EM waves only really act in one spatial dimension, the oscillation is just in the strength of the E and M fields.

>>8387638
That's only if the waves expand radially, if it's a plane wave it looks pretty different

>>8387642
so it's not an oscillation of matter but energy?
>>8387644
but i thought all waves expand radially because fields are radial.

>>8387650
>fields are radial
Do colorless green fields sleep radially?

>>8387650
I want you to take out a laser pointer and point at the wall. Does the light seem to be expanding from the source in uniform, omnidirectional spheres? If so, the wall behind you and the ceiling should also be illuminated with similar strength, depending on their distance from the source.

>>8387626
when the source is too far, you can always approximnate to a plane wave, thats why you don't usually see this kind of representation >>8387638.

Also, a radiation pattern graph is much more useful and easy to understand than making a complicated 3D represantiation of the waveform

>>8387650
Do all water waves expand radially? If so, how do wave pool machines work?

>>8387675
>when the source is too far, you can always approximnate to a plane wave, thats why you don't usually see this kind of representation

Thank you. Additionally, dipole radiation (like EM) doesn't really follow a sphere pattern - it's only created by a varying dipole moment, and so along the dipole axis there's no radiation. You get more of a toroidal pattern.

Waves are just pressure differences in a sense

>>8387678
it's just reflecting radial waves at multiple points which combine to form a traversing wave?

>>8387650
>so it's not an oscillation of matter but energy?
It's an oscillation of anything

>>8387795
even of time? woah................

>>8387796
An oscillation of anything over time and space to be more precise

>>8387801
how can it be over space? you mean like a car wheel covering distance?

>>8387807
Kind of, as in the wave needs to move through space in some direction

>>8387811
can waves move in closed paths?

File: 1394234507715.gif (96KB, 711x249px) Image search: [Google]

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have some gifs of transverse EM waves

File: 1394289978498.gif (201KB, 550x400px) Image search: [Google]

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>>8387854

>>8387817
>can waves move in closed paths?
see
STANDING WAVE