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What do you observe happens when a p wave travels from a solid to a liquid?

User Uceumern
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1- It depends on the incident angle at which the P-wave hits the liquid. Using snells law, a portion of the energy is converted to an S-Wave, a portion of it ir reflected, but the majority of the energy just disappears ( it is absorbed into the liquid ) since P-waves do not travel through liquids. 2- it spreads out making the sound travel faster than it does in air 3- P-waves move up and down 4- S-waves move side to side 5- P-waves are pressure waves, or longitudinal waves. The motion is in the direction of the wave. These waves travel through solids and liquids. S-waves are shear waves, or shaking waves. The motion is perpendicular to the wave direction. These waves cannot travel through liquids. An earthquake produces both P and S waves and by monitoring the arrival (or non-arrival) of P and/or S waves around the Earth we can infer a liquid component to the core.
User Warlock
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