Wave occur when a system is disturbed from its equilibrium position and this disturbance travels or propagates from one region of the system to other.
In wave both information and energy propagate (In the form of signals) from one point to another, but there is no motion of matter as a whole through a medium.
Types Of Wave
There are mainly three types of wave as given below.
(I) Mechanical Wave
The wave required a material medium for their propagation are called mechanical wave. These waves are also called elastic wave because their propagation depend on the material which posses elasticity and inertia.
Example: Water wave, sound wave, seismic wave (waves produced during earthquake) etc.
(II) Electromagnetic Wave
These types of wave travel in the form of oscillating electric and magnetic fields are called electromagnetic waves.
Electromagnetic waves do not require any material medium for their propagation and are also called non mechanical waves.
Example: Visible and ultraviolet light, X-rays, radio and television wave, microwave etc.
All the electromagnetic wave travel the vacuum at the same speed C and is given by
C = 29,97,92,458 m/s ≈ 3×10⁸ m/s
(III) Matter Wave
These types of wave are associated with microscopic particles i.e electrons, protons and other fundamental particles and even atoms and molecules when they are in motion are called matter wave or de-Broglie waves.
Example: Electron microscope is associated with electrons present in matter waves.