Anatomy of a Wave

draw iconperson drawingPretend that you have been chosen by your school to teach a one-day class on waves to your fellow Oceanography students. As part of your instruction, you plan to draw a diagram of wave anatomy, as well as a few different types of waves and their movements in front of your students. Before turning the class over to you, the science department lead teacher wants to make sure that your diagrams are correct.

First, draw a general wave diagram and label its anatomy, including:

  • Wavelength
  • Wave height
  • Amplitude
  • Trough
  • Crest
  • Calm sea level or equilibrium
  • Direction of travel

Then, draw small pictorial representations of the following wave types and their causes:

  • Progressive
  • Internal
  • Standing
  • Seismic

These images should be your original work, so you should not use clipart or images from other sources. Your diagrams should be well-organized and clearly-labeled.  Each diagram should include a title.  Before you begin, review the Wave Diagram Checklist so that you understand how your assignment will be graded.

Options to create your wave diagrams include the following:

  • Hand-draw the assignment and then take a picture of it for submission to the assignment’s dropbox.
  • Hand-draw the assignment and then scan it for submission to the assignment’s dropbox.
  • Utilize a paint, presentation, word processing, or graphics program to create the diagrams.

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Once you have completed your drawings, please submit the image files to the dropbox.