Longitudinal wave and seismic P-waves (created by earthquakes and explosions). In longitudinal waves, the displacement of the medium is parallel to the propagation of the wave, and waves can be either straight or round. A wave along the length of a stretched Slinky toy, where the distance between coils increases and decreases, is a good visualization. In the case of longitudinal harmonic sound waves, the frequency and wavelength can be described by the formula where: The quantity "x"/"c" is the time that the wave takes to travel the distance "x". The ordinary frequency ("f") of the wave is given by The wavelength
Internal wave Coriolis frequency with latitude. An internal wave can readily be observed in the kitchen by slowly tilting back and forth a bottle of salad dressing - the waves exist at the interface between oil and vinegar. Atmospheric internal waves can be visualized by wave clouds: at the wave crests air rises and cools in the relatively lower pressure, which can result in water vapor condensation if the relative humidity is close to 100%. Clouds that reveal internal waves launched by flow over hills are called lenticular clouds because of their lens-like appearance. Less dramatically, a train of internal waves can