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Waves
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| waves | traveling disturbance that carries energy |
| vibration | movement that follows the same path |
| medium | material through which a mechanical wave travel |
| mechanical wave | wave that disturbs a medium |
| electromagnetic | wave that consists of electric and magnetic fields and does not require a medium to exist |
| crest | high point of a wave |
| trough | low point of a wave |
| amplitude | greatest distance from resting position of a wave |
| wavelength | distance between two consecutive similar points to another (crest to crest or trough to trough) |
| frequency | number of waves that pass a certain point in a given amount of time |
| transverse wave | wave in which the motion of the medium is at a right angle to the direction of the wave |
| longitudinal wave | wave in which the motion of the medium is parallel to the direction of the wave |
| surface wave | wave that occurs at the surface of a medium |
| compression | squeezing together |
| reflection | bouncing back of waves upon reaching another surface |
| refraction | bending of waves due to a change in speed |
| diffraction | bending of waves around the edge of the obstacle |
| interference | interaction of waves that occur at the same time and place |
| standing wave | a wave that does not appear to be moving (moving at the natural frequency of the material) |
| resonant frequency | frequency at which a standing wave occurs |
| Pitch | property of sound that depends on frequency |
| Ultrasonic | sound above the range of human hearing |
| Infrasonic | sound below the range of human hearing |
| Doppler effect | change in sound or light that occurs whenever there is motion between the source and its observer |
| Intensity of sound | amount of energy carried by a wave; indicated by the amplitude of a wave |
| Acoustics | science of sound and its interactions |
| Sound quality | blending of pitches to produce sound; timbre |
| Timbre | blending of pitches to produce sound; sound quality |
| Fundamental tone | note produced at the lowest frequency at which a standing wave occurs |
| Overtone | tone produced at the lowest frequency at which a standing wave occurs |
| Sonar | technique of using sound waves to measure distance; sound navigation and ranging |