The main reason for displaying sound waves like that is for the sake of simplicity. A transverse wave gives a very clear indication of wavelength and amplitude. It's immediately clear how two waves differ in frequency and amplitude when they are displayed as a transverse wave with crests and troughs. Displaying a longitudinal wave on a screen is possible, but difficult to see. The only way to do it would be to have a...
The main reason for displaying sound waves like that is for the sake of simplicity. A transverse wave gives a very clear indication of wavelength and amplitude. It's immediately clear how two waves differ in frequency and amplitude when they are displayed as a transverse wave with crests and troughs. Displaying a longitudinal wave on a screen is possible, but difficult to see. The only way to do it would be to have a series of vertical lines on the screen. Then have sections of those lines that are spread out (rarefaction) and sections that are squished together (compressions). That would be incredibly annoying to look at, and it would make measuring wavelength, frequency, and amplitude incredibly tedious. I've attached a link to a picture of a longitudinal wave display. I for one would not want to stare at a screen loaded with those.
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