Main Lesson You might not realise it, but you use waves everyday of your life. Light is a type of wave, so is sound. The infra-red control you use to turn on your TV uses a special type of wave. The electricity you use to make your home computer work can be thought of as a type of wave. These are the sort of waves that you can make by moving a slinky spring back and forth.
Sound waves are an example of longitudinal waves.
Here are two diagrams showing a transverse and a longitudinal wave. It shows how much energy a wave has. For example, a large amplitude sound wave means you would have a loud sound. This is the distance from one point on a wave to an identical point. It tells you how long the wave is.