click below
click below
Normal Size Small Size show me how
Waves
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| waves | traveling disturbance that carries energy from one place to another |
| vibration | movement that follows the same path over and over again |
| medium | material through which a mechanical wave travels |
| mechanical wave | wave that disturbs a medium |
| electromagnetic wave | wave that consists of electric and magnetic fields and dose not require a medium to exist |
| crest | high point of a wave |
| trough | low point of a wave |
| wavelength | distance between two consecutive similar points on a wave |
| 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 right angles 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 consists of a combination of transverse and longitudinal waves and occurs at the surface between two different mediums |
| compression | squeezing together |
| reflection | bouncing back of waves upon reaching another surface |
| refraction | bending of waves due to a change of speed |
| diffraction | bending of waves around the edge of an obstacle |
| interference | interaction of waves that occur at the same place at the same time |
| standing wave | wave that does not appear to be moving; occurs at the natural frequency of the material |
| resonant frequency | frequency at which a standing wave occurs |
| pitch | property of sound that depends on the frequency |
| ultrasonic | sound above the range of human hearing (20,000 hz) |
| infrasonic | sound below the range of human hearing (20 hz) |
| Doppler effect | change in sound of 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 frequencies higher than the fundamental at which a standing wave occurs |
| sonar | technique of using sound waves to measure distance; sound navigation and ranging |