Waves are all around us - light waves, sound waves, water waves, radio waves. At their core, waves are disturbances that transfer energy from one place to another. They don't necessarily move matter, just energy.

Think about a stadium wave. People stand up and sit down in sequence, but nobody runs around the stadium. The wave moves, people stay in place. That's a wave in action.

Parts of a Wave

Every wave has a wavelength - the distance from one peak to the next. It has frequency - how many waves pass by each second. And it has amplitude - how tall the wave is, which relates to how much energy it carries.

For light waves, wavelength determines color. Red light has longer wavelengths, violet has shorter. For sound, wavelength determines pitch.