Dive bomb! When you jump into a swimming pool, you create lots of waves. These start from you and then move away from you. Just like with this giant slinky.
As you move the handle from left to right, a wave departs from you and runs away from you. It’s a ‘running wave’.
You can see that the rings move from left to right. The wave, on the other hand, moves straight ahead. So they do not move in the same direction, but perpendicular to each other. This type of running wave is called a transverse wave. When you jump into the swimming pool, you also make this kind of wave. The water particles then move up and down, while the wave travels forward.
Keep moving the handle from left to right in sync several times. Then you’ll notice that the waves crash back at the end and run back to you. Those waves collide with the waves that are going in the other direction and create a ‘standing wave’. Some points on the slinky do not move at all. We call those nodes. Others move continuously from left to right. The points furthest out are the anti-nodes.
Want to know more about the other kind of running wave? Then take a look at Longitudinal wave.
Want to know more about wave characteristics? Then take a look at Light function.
Transverse waves in light
Rays of light from the sun or from a lamp travel through the air as transverse waves.