Question | Answer |
What does amplitude describe? | How far the medium in a wave moves. |
What does wavelength describe? | A wave's length. |
What does frequency describe? | How often a wave occurs. |
What does speed describe? | How quickly a wave moves. |
What do all waves have in common? | Their properties - amplitude, wavelength, frequency, and speed. |
What is the amplitude of a transverse wave? | The maximum distance the medium moves up and down from its rest position. |
What is the amplitude of a longitudinal wave? | A measure of how compressed or rarefied the medium becomes. |
When compressions are dense, what does that mean about the wave? | That the wave's amplitude is large. |
How do you find the wavelength of a transverse wave? | By measuring the distance from crest to crest. |
How do you find the wavelength of a longitudinal wave? | By measuring the distance between compressions. |
What units is frequency measured in? | Hertz or Hz. |
If 2 waves pass every second what is the frequency of the 2 waves? | 2 waves per second (2/s) of 2 Hz. |
How do you determine a wave's speed? | By dividing the distance it travels by the time it takes to travel that distance. |
What are speed, wavelength, and frequency related by? | A mathematical formula. |
Speed = | Wavelength x Frequency |
Frequency = | Speed / Wavelength |
Wavelength = | Speed / Frequency |
What are the ways waves change direction? | Reflection, refraction, and diffraction. |
What is an incoming wave? | A wave moving toward the surface at an angle. |
What is the angle of incidence? | The angle between the incoming wave and the normal. |
What is the normal? | A line perpendicular to the surface at the point where reflection occurs. |
What is the angle of reflection? | The angle between the reflected wave and the normal. |
What is the reflected wave? | A wave bouncing off the surface at an angle. |
What happens when a wave enters a new medium at an angle? | One side of the wave changes speed before the other side. This causes the waves to bend. |
Why does bending occur? | Because different parts of the wave travel at different speeds. |
What happens when water waves encounter canals or shorelines? | They diffract. |
What are the two types of interference? | Constructive interference and destructive interference. |
Is the amplitude of the wave combined in constructive interference large or small? | Large. |
Is the amplitude of the wave combined in destructive interference large or small? | Small. |
What happens if the incoming wave and reflected wave have the same frequency? | They combine to form a standing wave. |
What kind of amplitude does a node have? | Zero amplitude. |
What kind of amplitude does an antinode have? | The maximum amplitude. |
What is resonance? | An increase in the amplitude of a vibration that occurs when external vibration match an object's natural frequency. |