Free and printable wave diagrams have been collected for you to print with high definition. Learning about the details of wave will require you to examine it through a diagram. A wave is a regular vibration that carries energy. Ripples on the surface of a pond, sound in air, ultrasound, visible light, X rays and infrared rays are all types of wave. All transverse waves have crests and troughs. As waves travel, they set up patterns of disturbance. The first wave diagram can be seen in the following image.
As you can see in the diagram above, there are several details about quantities of wave. The amplitude (a) of a wave is the distance from the center line (or the still position) to the top of a crest or to the bottom of a trough. The wavelength (λ) of a wave is the distance from any point on one wave to the same point on the next wave along. The frequency, f, of a wave is the number of waves passing a point in a certain time. The speed (or sometimes you might see it called velocity) of a wave (v) is how far the wave travels in a certain time.
The amplitude of a wave is its maximum disturbance from its undisturbed position. What you have to know is that the amplitude is not the distance between the top and bottom of a wave. It is the distance from the middle to the top. The wavelength of a wave is the distance between a point on one wave and the same point on the next wave. It is often easiest to measure this from the crest of one wave to the crest of the next wave, but it doesn’t matter where as long as it is the same point in each wave. The diagrams below show the transverse wave, wavelength, and tsunami wave.
The frequency of a wave is the number of waves produced by a source each second. It is also the number of waves that pass a certain point each second. The unit of frequency is the hertz (Hz). It is common for kilohertz (kHz), megahertz (MHz) and gigahertz (GHz) to be used when waves have very high frequencies. All these wave diagrams are free to saved and printed, just click on the image to enlarge and save it!