Noun

waves

1. Plural form of wave.

Verb

waves

1. Third-person singular simple present indicative form of wave.

Anagrams

• S wave, S-wave

In mathematics and science, a wave is a disturbance that travels through space and time, usually by the transfer of energy. Waves are described by a wave equation that can take on many forms depending on the type of wave. A mechanical wave is a wave that propagates through a medium owing to restoring forces resulting from its deformation. For example, sound waves propagate via air molecules bumping into their neighbors. This transfers some energy to these neighbors, which will cause a cascade of collisions between neighbouring molecules. When air molecules collide with their neighbors, they also bounce away from them (restoring force). This keeps the molecules from actually traveling with the wave.

Waves travel and transfer energy from one point to another, often with no permanent displacement of the particles of the medium—that is, with little or no associated mass transport. They consist instead of oscillations or vibrations around almost fixed locations. For example, a cork on rippling water will bob up and down while staying in about the same place while the wave itself moves onwards. Waves carry energy but not mass because even as a wave travels outward from the center (carrying energy of motion), the medium itself does not flow with it.

There are also waves capable of travelling through a vacuum, e.g. electromagnetic radiation (including visible light, ultraviolet radiation, infrared radiation, gamma rays, X-rays, and radio waves). They consist of period oscillations in electrical and magnetic properties that grow, reach a peak, and diminish to zero in a periodic fashion.

Researchers believe that gravitational waves travel through space, although gravitational waves have never been directly detected. (See gravitational radiation.)