Modelling waves with slinkies

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.