155k views
0 votes
What do you observe happens when a p wave travels from a solid to a liquid?

User Uceumern
by
8.5k points

1 Answer

3 votes
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
by
8.5k points

No related questions found

Welcome to QAmmunity.org, where you can ask questions and receive answers from other members of our community.

9.4m questions

12.2m answers

Categories