Definition:Elastic Wave

Definition

An elastic wave is a wave whose mechanism is that a particle of the medium is displaced such that it transfers its momentum to another particle and then returns to its original position.

The second particle then causes a further particle to be displaced in the same manner, and so on.

Examples

Sound Wave

A sound wave is an example of an elastic wave.

Also see

• Results about elastic waves can be found here.

Sources

• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): elastic wave
• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): wave
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): elastic wave
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): wave