Practice question · True or false
A wave carries both energy and matter across the room.
Hints
- Watch a cork on a passing water wave.
- It bobs; it does not travel.
Show the answer
False
Why
False. The medium oscillates about a fixed position while the disturbance propagates, the cork bobs and stays put. Only energy and momentum move across. That is why sound crosses a room without a draught, and why wave speed is set by the medium rather than by how hard the source was struck.
Practise Waves
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