WAVES

General Wave Properties:

• Waves transfer ______________ without transferring___________.
• Examples of wave motion include:
o Water Waves
o Ropes
o Springs
• Frequency: the number of waves passing any point per second measured in _______( ).

•Period: time taken for one _______________ in seconds

• Wavefront: the peak of a transverse wave or the compression of a longitudinal wave
• Speed: how fast the wave travels measured in _____________ (m/s)
• Wavelength: ______________ (period/distance) between a point on one wave to the
corresponding point on the next wave in length
• Amplitude: maximum _______________ of a wave from its undisturbed point.
• Refraction:
o Speed and wave length is reduced but frequency stays the same and the wave changes
direction
o Mechanical waves slow down when they pass from a denser to a rarer material and vice versa
o Note: Electromagnetic waves like light increase in speed from an optically denser to a rarer
medium.
o When wave is slowed down, it is refracted _________ (towards/away) normal (i > r)
o When wave is speed up, it is refracted _________ (towards/away) from normal (i < r)
o Deep water is______________ (denser/less dense) than shallow water
• Reflection:
o Waves bounce away from surface at same angle they strike it
o Angle of incidence = angle of reflection
o The incident ray, normal and reflected ray all lie on the __________ (same/different) plane.
o Speed, wavelength and frequency are unchanged by reflection

• Reflection:

• Diffraction:
• Waves bend round the sides of an obstacle, or spread out as they pass through a gap.
• Wider gaps produce ____________ (less/more) diffraction.
• When the gap size is equal to the wavelength, ____________ (maximum/minimum)
diffraction occurs.
Reflection of Light

• Plane (flat) mirrors produce a _______________ (reflection/refraction).

• Rays from an object reflect off the mirror into our eyes, but we see them behind the mirror.
• The image has these properties:
o Image is the _________ (same/larger/smaller) size as the object
o Image is the ___________ (longer/same/shorter) distance from the mirror as object
o A line joining corresponding points of the image and object meet the mirror at a
_____________ (right angle/perpendicular/parallel).
o Image is virtual: no rays actually pass through the image and the image cannot be formed on
a screen

• Laws of reflection:

o The incident ray, reflected ray and normal are always on the same plane (side of mirror)
• Critical angle: angle at which refracted ray is __________________(parallel/perpendicular)
to surface of material.
• If the angle of incidence is __________ (less/greater) than the critical angle there is no
refracted ray, there is total internal reflection.
• If the angle of incidence is ______________ (less/greater) than the critical angle the incidence
ray will split into a refracted ray and a weaker reflected ray.
Refraction of Light
• Refraction is the _____________ (reflection/bending) of light when it travels from one
medium to another due to the change in __________ (intensity/speed) of the ray of light.

➢ The emergent ray is ____________ (parallel/perpendicular) to the incident ray only if

the sides of the glass are parallel)

➢ i = angle of _______________.

➢ r = angle of ______________.
• Light put in at one end is totally internally reflected until it comes out the other end.
• Application: Optical Fibres
o Used in communications: signals are coded and sent along the fiber as pulses of
laser light
o Used in medicine: an endoscope, an instrument used by surgeons to look inside the
body; contains a long bundle of optic fiber.

Thin Converging Lens

• Principal focus: the point where rays _____________ (parallel/perpendicular) to the
principal axis converge with a converging lens.
• Focal length: distance from principal focus and the optical center.
• Principal axis: line that goes through optical center, and the 2 foci.
• Optical center: the center of the lens
• Real: image can be caught on a screen
• Virtual: image cannot be caught on a screen
Real Image
• When object is further away from the optical centre than F’.

A) A ray through centre of the lens passes straight through the lens.
B) A ray parallel to the principal axis passes through the focus on the other side of the lens
C) A ray through F’ will leave the lens parallel to the principal axis

Virtual Image
• When the object is closer to the optical centre than F’.

• Magnifying glass: when a convex lens is used like this an object is closer to a convex
(converging) lens than the principal focus (like the diagram above), the rays never converge.
Instead, they appear to come from a position behind the lens. The image is upright and
magnified, it is a virtual image.
• Images can be:
o Enlarged: The image is larger than the object.
o Same size: The image is the same size as the object.
o Diminished: The image is smaller than the object.
o Upright: The image is in the same vertical orientation as the object.
Dispersion of Light

Refraction by a prism:
• When light is ___________ (reflected/refracted) by a prism, the incidence ray is not parallel
to the emergent ray, since the prism’s sides are not parallel.
• If a beam of white light is passed through a prism it is dispersed into a ____________
(spectrum/monochromatic light).
• White light is a mixture of colours, and the prism refracts each colour by a different amount.
Red is deviated ________ (least/most) while violet is deviated ___________ (least/most).
• Monochromatic light is that of a ___________ (single/multiple) frequency and colour.
• The visible spectrum of light looks like this :

Electromagnetic Spectrum (ROMAN MEN INVENTED VERY UNUSUAL XRAY GUNS)

• All electromagnetic waves:
o Travel at the speed of light: approximately at
o They travel at around the same speed in air too.
o Don’t need a medium to travel through (travel through a vacuum)
o Can transfer energy
o Are produced by particles oscillating or losing energy in some way
o Are_____________________ (transverse/longitudinal) waves

• Applications:
o Radio waves: radio and television communications
o Microwaves: satellite television and telephones
o Safety issue: cause internal heating of body tissues
o Infrared: electrical appliances (radiant heaters and grills), remote controllers for
televisions and intruder alarms
o X-rays: medicine (x-ray photography and killing cancer cells) and security
o Safety issue: is a mutagen, it causes cancer (mutations)
o Monochromatic: light of a single wavelength and colour (used in lasers)

Sound
• Sound is a _____________(electrical/mechanical/physical) wave.
• Sound waves come from a _______________ source e.g. loudspeaker
• As the loudspeaker cone vibrates, it moves forwards and backwards, which squashes &
stretches the air in front.
• As a result, a series of _________________ (squashes) and _____________ (stretches) travel
out through the air, these are sound waves
• Humans can hear frequencies between ___________ and _______________ Hz.

• Properties:
o Sound waves are longitudinal: they have compressions and rarefactions and oscillate
backwards and forwards.
o Sound waves need a medium to travel through as it moves due to oscillating particles.
• Ultrasound Waves: high frequency sound waves, medically used to look at structures and
organs inside the human body.
• Compression: High pressure section of a longitudinal wave
• Rarefaction: Low pressure section of a longitudinal wave

• The higher the frequency, the ______________(lower/higher) the pitch.

• The higher the amplitude, the ______________(slower/louder) the sound
• If a sound is repeated 0.1 seconds or more after it is first heard, the brain senses it again.
• Therefore, given the adequate distance, if sound reflects off a surface, and comes back, an
____________ is produced.
• Finding the speed of sound

o When sound reflects off of a wall, it will come back to you; echo
o If you know the distance between you and the wall, and measure how long it takes
for the echo to sound, you can figure out the speed of sound in air.
o Remember to take into account that sound has gone there & back

Speed of sound = (state the value)

Addition
Longitudinal Sound Waves - A longitudinal wave is a wave in which the motion of the medium’s particles
is parallel to the direction of the energy transport. If you push a slinky back and forth, the coils move in a
parallel fashion (back and forth). Similarly, when a tuning fork is struck, the direction of the sound wave is
parallel to the motion of the air particles.

Mechanical Sound Waves - A sound wave moves through air by displacing air particles in a chain reaction.
As one particle is displaced from its equilibrium position, it pushes or pulls on neighbouring molecules,
causing them to be displaced from their equilibrium. As particles continue to displace one another with
mechanical vibrations, the disturbance is transported throughout the medium. These particle-to-particle,
mechanical vibrations of sound conductance qualify sound waves as mechanical waves. Sound energy, or
energy associated with the vibrations created by a vibrating source, requires a medium to travel, which makes
sound energy a mechanical wave.

Pressure Sound Waves - Because sound waves consist of compressions and rarefactions, their regions
fluctuate between low and high-pressure patterns. For this reason, sound waves are considered to be pressure
waves. For example, as the human ear receives sound waves from the surrounding environment, it detects
rarefactions as low-pressure periods and compressions as high-pressure periods.

Transverse Waves - Transverse waves move with oscillations that are perpendicular to the direction of the
wave. Sound waves are not transverse waves because their oscillations are parallel to the direction of the
energy transport. Among the most common examples of transverse waves are ocean waves. A more tangible
example can be demonstrated by wiggling one side of a string up and down, while the other end is anchored.

In many ways, sound waves are similar to light waves. They both originate from a definite source, and can
be distributed or scattered using various means. Unlike light, sound waves can only travel through a medium,
such as air, glass, or metal. This means there’s no sound in space!