Wave motion in a medium transfer:

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BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

The question concerns what is transferred by wave motion in a medium. Since no multiple-choice options are provided, I will discuss the common alternatives to help illuminate what is typically correct.
If the usual set of options were: (A) only energy, (B) only matter, (C) both energy and matter, (D) neither energy nor matter, we can analyze why energy is the correct and fundamental quantity transported by waves in a medium.
- Energy transport: In mechanical waves (such as sound waves in air or waves on a string), energy flows through the medium as the wave propagates. The energy is associated with local oscillations, tensions, and motion of particles, and it moves from one region to another with the wavefront. This energy transfer can be quantified by the wave’s energy density and flux, and it persists even though the particles themselves mostly oscillate about their equilibrium positions.
- Matter transport: In contrast, the actual bulk material of the medium does not travel with the wave in the same way as energy does. The particles undergo periodic displacements and return to their original positions (for many wave types). There can be a small net transport in special cases (like acoustic streaming or wave-induced drift), but for most standard descriptions of wave motion in homogeneous media, matter movement is localized and does not constitute the primary transfer:
  • In a string wave, the string elements move up and down, but the string as a whole does not advance along the direction of the wave.
  • In sound waves, pressure fluctuations move through the air, transferring energy and momentum, while the air molecules oscillate about their rest positions with no net long-distance transport.
- Therefore, the most consistent and widely accepted statement is that wave motion in a medium transfers energy (and associated momentum in many cases), rather than transferring the bulk matter from one location to another.
If you encounter answer choices that claim both energy and matter are transferred as a whole, that would be inaccurate for standard wave motion descriptions, because matter does not constitute the primary carrier of the wave’s energy in the same way the wave’s energy does. Likewise, claiming energy cannot be transferred would contradict the fundamental understanding of waves as energy carriers.
Note: In some specialized phenomena (like wave-induced drag, streaming, or net particle transport in nonuniform media), there can be a small amount of net matter movement, but this is not the defining characteristic of wave motion in a typical medium and is not the primary mechanism by which the wave propagates its influence.
Given that the provided answer indicates that the correct statement is that wave motion in a medium transfers energy only, the reasoning aligns with the conventional view that the wave transports energy through the medium while the medium’s particles largely undergo reversible oscillations rather than a bulk drift.

SPHY001 Practice Quiz - Unit 16 | LA056

Wave motion in a medium transfer:

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