What is a Mechanical Wave? 

Read the following passage and fill out your top flap in your foldable: 

Definitions: 

Wave: A disturbance that carries energy from one place to another. 

Mechanical Wave: A wave that can only travel through a medium (solid, liquid, or gas) 

Medium: the matter that mechanical waves can travel through (plural; media) (solid, liquid, or gas) 

Energy can be transferred in two main ways: either through mechanical waves, which require particles in a medium to collide and transfer energy, or through electromagnetic waves, which do not rely on a medium and can travel through both matter and the vacuum of space.

Mechanical waves, such as sound or water waves, cannot travel through empty space because there are no particles in a vacuum to vibrate or transfer energy between. Without a medium—like air, water, or solid matter—the energy from a mechanical wave has no way to propagate. This is why sound cannot travel in space, as there are no air molecules to carry the vibrations.

In contrast, electromagnetic waves, like light or radio waves, can move through the vacuum of space because they transfer energy through oscillating electric and magnetic fields rather than particle interactions. This distinction explains why light from the sun reaches Earth across the emptiness of space, while sound from an explosion in space would never be heard.

Mechanical waves transfer energy through the vibration of particles in a medium (such as air, water, or solid materials).  When waves transfer energy, the individual particles of the medium do not travel with the wave over long distances. Instead, they oscillate or move back and forth around a fixed position, depending on the type of wave. The distance that these particles move from their equilibrium position is called the amplitude of the wave.