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I have googled for answer but, did not get any satisfactory result.

I want to know that, why does audio wave or in general sense radio waves look like a wave.

I mean basically how to prove that when there is a sound there is sound wave in all directions from source and it look like a wave.

Sachin G.
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  • Are you trying to ask what electromagnetic waves like those emitted by a radio-transmitter look like in a typical illustration used in physics? – CuriousOne Dec 30 '15 at 04:16
  • Yes, and how to prove that it looks like wave. – Sachin G. Dec 30 '15 at 04:21
  • We have, at least, one article which covers a similar question and which has the usual images: http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/20331/understanding-the-diagrams-of-electromagnetic-waves. Let us know what you want to know beyond this. As for the question how we can know this... one can do precision measurements on electromagnetic waves, but they are difficult and usually require costly equipment. The images you see in the link are derived theoretically. The total amount of evidence that the theory and reality match is very complete for electromagnetic waves, though. – CuriousOne Dec 30 '15 at 04:24
  • Well, I'm not sure what you mean by "look like a wave" because there are different types of waves. Sound is a "longitudinal wave" or "compression wave". See the following link for animations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longitudinal_wave – James Dec 30 '15 at 12:26
  • If it obeys a 'wave' equation, it is a wave? – Jon Custer Dec 30 '15 at 16:37
  • Connect a microphone to an oscilloscope and play some tunes into it. – The Photon Dec 30 '15 at 16:52
  • For sound waves in a gas, Heinrick Rubens built what today is called a Ruben's tube (link to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubens%27_tube ). The Ruben's tube directly measures the pressure at different locations of a standing sound wave - showing fixed zones of compression and rarefaction. The flames above the tube provide a visualization of the pressure gradients. – docscience Dec 31 '15 at 02:05
  • ... and that's in one dimension. For two dimensions research Chaladni Plates. – docscience Dec 31 '15 at 02:08

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