Waves: Feynman's Physics Explained
Here we meet some of the richest wave phenomena in nature. When something moves faster than the waves it makes — a boat on water or a jet in air — it builds a V-shaped bow wave or a conical shock wave. Waves in solids can be both longitudinal (like sound) and transverse (like light), which is how seismologists deduced that Earth has a liquid core. And water surface waves are wonderfully complex, with a speed that depends on wavelength in a peculiar way.
The big idea
Waves in the real world get gloriously complicated.
Think about it
How could the way earthquake waves do (or don't) pass through Earth's interior reveal a hidden liquid core?
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