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
Zero sound transport equation is valid in the regime where formula_36 and formula_37. In many systems, formula_38 only slowly depends on the angle between formula_39 and formula_40. If formula_29 is an angle-independent constant formula_42 with formula_43 (note that this constraint is stricter than the Pomeranchuk instability) then the wave has the form formula_44 and dispersion relation formula_45 where formula_46 is the ratio of zero sound phase velocity to Fermi velocity. If the first two Legendre components of the Landau parameter are significant, formula_47 and formula_48, the system also admits an asymmetric zero sound wave solution formula_49 (where formula_50 and formula_51 are the