Wave Speed

Wave Speed

Wave speed is how fast a wave travels through a medium. It depends on the type of wave and the material it’s moving through. For example, sound travels faster in solids than in air, and light moves fastest in a vacuum. Wave speed is related to two key properties—wavelength (the distan...

Have you ever watched a wave move across a rope or ripple through water and wondered, “How fast is that wave going?”

That’s what we call wave speed, a measure of how fast the energy in a wave travels from one place to another.

One way to calculate wave speed is by measuring the distance a wave travels and the time it takes to travel ...