How is a longitudinal wave represented graphically?
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Solution
The longitudinal waves travel in the form of compressions and rarefactions and always compression follow a rarefaction or vice versa.
Whenever there is compression the density of particles of the medium is higher than the normal density, while in a rarefaction, the density of the particles is lower than the normal density.
The figure below gives the distance-density graph for a longitudinal wave. In the below graph, the horizontal dotted line represents the normal density of the medium.
All the points above the dotted line represent higher densities and the points below the dotted line represent lower densities than the normal density.
