I'm just starting a year 11 physics class, and I think I've already come across a mistake in the textbook.
The textbook said that transverse and longitudinal waves can travel in one and three dimensions, but longitudinal waves could not travel in two dimensions, only transverse waves could.
Is this right?
If it is, what's the reasoning behind it. Why can longitudinal waves travel in one and three dimensions, but not two?
Neither my physics teacher nor any of my peers could work this one out any further than that if what the textbook says is true then due to sound waves being longitudinal, Flatlanders must be deaf.
