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What is a longitudinal wave? Longitudinal waves - the vibration goes forwards and backwards along the direction of travel. Think of sound. Sound is a series of collisions of particles. In air a drum skin vibrates (for example). As this skin goes up it pushes all the air particles up and they compress together. These will then push into the air particles above them and cause them to do the same. The sound travels through the air as a series of collisions. A good way to see this is to put some marbles between two long rulers. If you make one marble move along it will go as far as the next marble, hit it and stop. The one it hit will move along to the next one and hit that - and so on. Another way to see longitudinal waves would be to use a slinky (a giant spring). If...

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