In this activity, students model how sound travels by sending waves along two stretched plastic slinkies tied together.
By the end of this activity, students should be able to:
- understand that sound is a longitudinal wave where particles in the medium vibrate back and forth along the same direction as the wave travels
- see that a wave travels along as a series of compressions and expansions in the medium.
Download the Word file (see link below) for:
- introduction/background notes
- instructions on what you need and what to do
- discussion questions
- extension ideas.
