Question

What is the name of a short duration wave?
A. Frequency
B. Pulse
C. Velocity
D. Time Period

Answer 1

Hint:The above problem revolves around the concept of waves and the motion of waves. In order to determine the name for a short duration wave we first need to know the concept behind waves.

Complete answer:
Waves are vibrations that transfer energy from place to place without matter actually being transferred. This means that in a wave motion, disturbance travels through some medium, but the medium does not travel along the disturbance. The repeated periodic disturbance that moves through a medium from one location to another are called waves.

The term medium here, refers to the substance through which waves travel which proves to be an interface that is provided for the waves to move or propagate in. Waves work in a manner that the vibrations of the particles are continuously transferred from one particle to another; this is said to be the way in which a wave propagates.

In order to determine the required solution to the answer we will look at each option and check if it is the correct option for the given question.First let’s look at the first option which is frequency. Frequency of a wave is said to be the number of waves produced per unit time in the given medium and hence it is clear that the frequency refers to the count of the waves that are produced in the given time interval. It is said to be the total number of oscillations of the wave when in motion in a material medium. Hence, the frequency is not equivalent to the concept of a short duration wave. Hence this is not the correct option.

Now, let us look at the third option which is velocity. Velocity of a wave is described as the speed with which the wave travels in the medium which will be given as or measured as the amount of distance it covers in a certain period of time. Therefore this is not related to the concept of a short duration wave.

Next, let us look at the last option which is the time period. The time period and the frequency of a wave are related to each other. Time period is defined as the total time taken for the particle’s vibration to travel from one end to the other end or in other words the time taken to complete a to and fro motion of the vibration from its mean position. Thus, the time period is not defined as a short duration wave. Hence this is not the correct option.

A pulse is defined as the single disturbance moving through a medium from one location to another location. A pulse is said to exist for a very short period of time and then disappears and hence a pulse is said to be temporary. Thus this is the correct option.Hence, the name given to a short duration wave which exists only for a few seconds is a pulse.

Therefore, the correct answer is option B.

Note:A point to be noted is that the velocity of a wave in whole is different from the velocity contained by the particles present in the wave since the velocity of the complete wave like motion will remain constant at all times to conserve energy and momentum while the particle velocity changes continuously in order to transfer energy from one location to the other.