Inertia delays wave transmission and the medium returns to rest afterward
Evidence
Because of the mass of the golf balls there will be a time lag before they start moving from the action of the connecting springs. This means that the disturbance caused by moving the first golf ball will take some time to travel down to the other end. If the golf ball at the beginning is returned to its original position the whole process just described will happen again, except that the golf balls will be pulled rather than pushed and the connect ing springs will have to expand rather than compress. At the end of all this the system will end up with the golf balls having the same average spacing that they had before they were pushed and pulled. — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 26
Categorization
Category: Causal Relationships
- DEFINE: Establishes why the medium itself does not travel with the wave — the mechanism behind propagation.
Related
- Molecular inertia makes air particle velocity change smoothly and continuously (similarity 0.84)
- Sound travels at a finite speed because medium mass introduces time delays between molecules. (similarity 0.83)
Broader Connections
- Medium inertia produces a time lag in disturbance propagation through a material
#corroborates(0.95) — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 51