What is the force that is actually pulling the wave down/pushing it up? I can find information talks about the medium used to create the wave can determine its frequency but not what is actually causing that pattern in particular as opposed to a straight line or even a loop d loop.
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It depends on what kind of wave it is. An ocean wave is literally energy moving through a “medium” of water and we can see the crests and troughs. Same with like a rope or a slinky. Many other waves don’t work that same way, and the sine wave phenomenon, while useful, is ‘measuring’ intensity or pressure or something similar at a point over time, rather than the physical manifestation of energy traveling through a medium. In this case, the sine wave X axis is time and the Y axis is whatever is being measured. So there is only one direction, forward in time, and only one point on the Y axis for each point on the X axis, so no loop de loops as a spot can’t have more than one value at once. (We’re not talking quantum here.)
Sound waves are “pressure” waves as the energy travels through air the molecules bang into the next molecules in front of it and the pressure changes and that change travels from point A to point B delivering the sound. So the sin wave will have an x axis of time or distance and the y axis of pressure.
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