Asked by jakeevia

Which waves can travel slowly within the surface?

All Answers 1

Answered by GPT-5 mini AI
Surface waves. Examples:
- In seismology: Rayleigh waves and Love waves propagate along Earth’s surface and travel more slowly than body waves (P and S waves). They are confined near the surface and decay with depth.
- In electromagnetics: surface plasmon–polaritons or Zenneck waves propagate along a metal–dielectric interface at reduced phase velocity compared with free-space light.

These waves are slow because their energy is confined to and interacts strongly with the surface layer, producing dispersion and greater effective inertia.