Question

5 . which one of the following statements is true about P waves?

A. they travel only through solids
B. they travel faster than S waves
C. they are the most destructive type of waves
D. they cannot be recorded on the graph

Answer 1

Hello there.

Which one of the following statements is true about P waves?
They are the most destructive type of waves.

Answer 2

The correct answer is (B) they travel faster than S waves

As the interior of the earth is incompressible, the P-waves moves much faster and transmit their energy through the medium and travel very fast as compared to the S waves. In case of S waves, they are slow because the movement of medium is perpendicular to the direction of propagation of waves’ waves travel 60 times faster than S waves. The variation in speed of travel is because the earth reacts differently to both the waves.