Displacement, Density, and Phase of Longitudinal Waves
Displacement Display (can be moved by dragging or touching)
f:
v:
Description :
This page is designed to help you understand displacement, density, and phase in longitudinal waves.
The many purple lines represent the medium, and the longitudinal wave propagates through their displacement in the direction of wave travel.
The density distribution is shown by the colored band and the white curve at the top: red indicates high density and blue indicates low density. The density is always a positive quantity.
The purple curve below is the graph of the medium’s displacement. It shows the displacement along the direction of wave propagation, plotted vertically.
You can view the phase in the circle on the left. The phase of the longitudinal wave is represented as an angle measured from the downward direction.
● You can control the time progression using buttons such as “>”. Pressing “0” resets the time to zero.
● You can control the frequency with the “f” slider. The initial value is 100, and you can adjust it within the range of 20 to 100.
● You can control the wave speed with the “v” slider. The initial value is 120, and it can be adjusted within the range of 100 to 200.
● By dragging with the mouse or touching the wave area on a tablet, you can view the vibration and phase of any point in the medium.
Moving toward the left side of the screen hides the display.
Copyright 2025 KATO, Noriyoshi