pressure waves
Air's traveling pulses
Pressure waves are disturbances that travel through a medium by alternately compressing and expanding it.
Sound is the most familiar example—air molecules push together, then spread apart, propagating the wave outward.
Pressure waves also travel through liquids and solids: The explosion sent pressure waves through the water.
In medicine, shock wave therapy uses focused pressure waves to break up kidney stones or stimulate healing.
- amplitudeMaximum oscillation displacement
- explosive forceEnergy from detonation
- sound barrierMach one transition zone
- noise pollutionHarmful environmental sound
- oscillationsRepeated back-and-forth motions
frequency · lithotripsy · harmonic motion · ultrasound · sonic boom · sonar · rarefaction · wavelength · fluid dynamics · echolocation · thunder · resonance · pulse · ripple · boom · air · ear popping · reverberation
- labor signscontractions, water breaking, mucus plug, dilation, effacement
- Supersonicssonic boom, Mach number, sound barrier, shock wave, Mach 1
- fluid dynamicsfluid mechanics, fluid flow, turbulence, fluid motion, streamlines
- wave physicswavelength, wave function, frequency, wave speed, wave front
- Weaponryrifles, shotguns, grenades, missiles, bombs
- meteor impactscraters, impact crater, impact craters, crater, meteorite
pressure waveselectromagnetic radiation
Wave-propagating energy through space
electromagnetic waves · light · radio waves · photons · X-rays
pressure wavesequilibrium
State of balance
stillness · standing waves · silence · quiescence · steady state