Question

If you tie a rope to a tree and move it up and down, you are creating what kind of wave?

Answer 1

This is called a standing wave since the waves don't move ALONG the rope. They just kind of stand in one place on the rope. if you just whip a long rope that's not tied to anything, you see the wave move along the rope, this is a TRANSVERSE wave. When you crack a qhip you send a transverse wave down the whip which concentrates in the tip, accelerating the tip to faster than the speed of sound resulting in a tiny sonic boom or "whip crack".