Saurabh Kumar
Last Activity: 10 Years ago
There is never a comparison between transverse and progressive waves in exams, usually it's between progressive and standing waves, or between transverse and longitudinal waves..
A couple of definitions..
"A progressive wave has amplitude equal over all points, has net energy flow"
"A transverse wave has vibrations at right angles to the direction of wave motion".
There's no real way of comparing/contrasting them, since a progressive wave is a statement about how the wave flows - whether it has an energy transferral etc, whereas "a transverse wave" describes the motion of the oscillations.
Explain the difference between a progressive wave and stationary wave in phase, amp?
This question makes more sense.
"A progressive wave has amplitude equal over all points, has net energy flow"
"A standing wave is formed when two identical waves travelling in opposite directions meet and superimpose on each other. This usually happens when one wave is the reflection of the other. It has no net flow of energy"
As shown in the definitions, a progressive wave has equal amplitude over all points - there is no particular position/point in the wave where amplitude drops. On a stationary wave however, when the two waves combine/superimpose on each other, they form nodes and anti-nodes based on the wavelength/frequency of the wave.
Plane progressive wave defines its coordinate axes in (x-y)plane.