Wave Study Guide

3. In a transverse wave, in what direction do the particles move relative to wave direction?

A mechanical wave cannot travel through the space between the Sun and Earth. Light is an electromagnetic wave. An electromagnetic wave is a wave that can travel through empty space and through matter.

1. Define wave. What do waves transfer? What don't they transfer?

A wave is a disturbance that transfers energy from one place to another without transferring matter. The energy transferred to the water produces waves. The waves transfer energy from the place where the diver hits the water to the place where your raft is floating.

8. Define rarefaction and compression

A wave that can travel only through matter is a mechanical wave. A material in which a wave travels is called a medium.

23. What is absorption? What does the amount of absorption depend on? What does the color of a material indicate about the absorption of light?

Absorption is the transfer of energy by a wave to the medium through which it travels. The amount of energy absorbed depends on the type of wave and the material in which it moves.

33. What happens to the original waves after they travel through each other?

As the wave you create and the reflected wave interact, interference occurs. For some values of the wavelength, the wave that forms from the combined waves seems to stand still. This wave is called a standing wave

30. What do we call it when waves interact with each other?

Because of this size similarity, you often hear sound from sources that you can't see. For example, the wavelengths of sound waves are roughly the same size as the width of the doorway.

34. What is a standing wave?

Destructive interference occurs when a crest of one wave overlaps the trough of another wave. The new wave that forms has a smaller amplitude than the sum of the amplitudes of the original waves, as shown in the bottom

10. What happens to amplitude if you increase energy?

For a transverse wave, the greatest distance a particle moves from the rest position is to the top of a crest or to the bottom of a trough.

11. How do you determine the amplitude of a transverse wave?

In a longitudinal wave, you transfer more energy when you push and pull the end of the spring a greater distance.

20. Where do electromagnetic waves travel the fastest? The slowest?

Mechanical waves also usually travel faster as the temperature of the medium increases. Unlike mechanical waves, electromagnetic waves move fastest in empty space and slowest in solids.

25. What is reflection?

Reflection is the bouncing of a wave off a surface. Reflection causes the chrome on the car in to appear grey instead of black.

28. What is diffraction? Give an example of diffraction?

Refraction is the change in direction of a wave that occurs as the wave changes speed when moving from one medium to another. The greater the change in speed, the more the wave changes direction.

31. What is constructive interference?

Suppose you throw two pebbles into a pond. Waves spread out from the impact of each pebble and move toward each other. When the waves meet, they overlap for a while as they travel through each other.

9. What is amplitude.

The amplitude of a wave is the maximum distance that the wave moves from its rest position.

27. What is refraction? Give an example of refraction.

The angle between the direction of the reflected wave and the normal is the angle of reflection. According to the law of reflection, when a wave is reflected from a surface, the angle of reflection is equal to the angle of incidence.

29. Why can you hear sound from a room when you are down the hall, but you can't see what is in the room when you are down the hall?

The change in direction of a wave when it travels by the edge of an object or through an opening is called diffraction.

16. What is frequency? What unit is it measured in? How is frequency related to vibrations?

The frequency of a wave is the number of wavelengths that pass by a point each second. Frequency is related to how rapidly the object or material producing the wave vibrates. Each vibration of the object produces one wavelength.

7. Define crest and trough.

The highest points on a transverse wave are crests. The lowest points on a transverse wave are troughs.

4. In a longitudinal wave, in what direction do the particles move relative to wave direction?

The type of electromagnetic waves that an object gives off depends mainly on the temperature of the object. For example, you give off mostly infrared waves. Other objects near human body temperature also give off mostly infrared waves.

15. How would you measure the wavelength of a longitudinal wave?

The wave on the right has a shorter wavelength and a higher frequency. As the frequency of a wave increases, the wavelength decreases.

13. What is wavelength? What type of units is it measured in?

The wavelength of a wave is the distance from one point on a wave to the same point on the next wave. The wavelengths of a transverse wave and a longitudinal

32. What is destructive interference?

This type of interference is called constructive interference. It occurs when crests overlap with crests and troughs overlap with troughs.

17. How do you calculate frequency? What is the frequency if 5 waves pass in 1 second?

To calculate the frequency of waves , divide the number of wavelength by the times. If five waves pass in 1 second, 5 waves 1 second 5Hz

19. What type of matter do mechanical wave travel fastest through? What type of matter do mechanical waves travel slowest through?

To calculate the frequency of waves, divide the number of wavelengths by the time. For the wave on the left, the frequency is 1 wavelength divided by 4 s, which is 0.25 Hz.

14. How would you measure the wavelength of a transverse wave?

To measure the wavelength of a longitudinal wave, you can measure the distance from one compression to the next compression or from one rarefaction to the next rarefaction. Wavelength is measured in units of distance, such as meters.

12. How does increased amplitude affect a longitudinal wave? Discuss what it does to rarefaction and compression.

To measure the wavelength of a transverse wave, you can measure the distance from one crest to the next crest or from one trough to the next trough.

22. What are three ways that waves can interact with matter?

Waves also interact with each other. When two different waves overlap, a new wave forms. The new wave has different properties from either original wave.

26. What is the law of reflection? State the law and draw/label a diagram. If the angle of reflection is 30 degrees. What is the angle of incidence?

When you drop a basketball at an angle, it bounces up at the same angle but in the opposite direction. When waves reflect from a surface, they change direction like a basketball bouncing off a surface.

24. What is transmission? Give an example of a material that does not transmit light waves and one that almost fully transmits light waves. What happens to the waves that are not transmitted?

because the plastic absorbs only a small amount of the wave's energy. Transmission is the passage of light through an object, such as the windows

2. Compare and contrast mechanical waves and electromagnetic waves.

it. This position is called the rest position. The transverse wave on the rope has high points and low points. The highest points on a transverse wave are crests. The lowest points on a transverse wave are troughs.