| Term | Definition |
| Waves | Waves are Oscillations that carry energy. |
| Oscillation | an up and down or back or forth motion. |
| Mechanical Energy | Waves that move through vacuums. |
| Types of Mechanical Waves | Three types of mechanical waves are transverse waves, longitudinal waves and surface waves. |
| Electromagnetic Waves | one of the waves that are propagated by simultaneous periodic variations of electric and magnetic field intensity and that include radio waves, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, X-rays, and gamma rays |
| Types of Electromagnetic Waves | the 4 types of electromagnetic waves are X-ray waves
Radio waves Television waves Light waves |
| Wave Properties | are elements we can measure for ANY wave. |
| Amplitude | is one half the distance between a waves high point. |
| Crest | low point |
| Trough | low point |
| Resting Point | the position of the pointer with respect to the pointer scale when the beam has ceased moving |
| Wavelength and symbol | is measured from a point on one wave to the same point on the next wave like crest to crest or trough to trough. |
| Wavelength Units | the distance between two successive crests of a wave. |
| 3 ways to measure | Inches, feet, centimeters |
| Frequency | the number of waves that pass a fixed point in a given unit if time. |
| Units for Frequency | hertz |
| Wave Speed | represented in equations as v (velocity). |
| Wave Speed Units | the time it takes wave to move from one point to another. |
| Wave Speed Equation | wave speed = frequency * wavelength (abbreviated as v = f * ). |
| Medium | an agency or means of doing something. |
| Reflection | is when a wave bounces off a surface. |
| Law of Reflection | explains that waves get reflected in a particular way - a wave reflects at the same angle as the angle that it moved toward the barrier. |
| Reflected Ray | A ray of light or other form of radiant energy which is thrown back from a non permeable or non absorbing surface; the ray which strikes the surface before reflection is the incident ray. |
| Incident Ray | is a ray of light that strikes a surface. |
| Refraction | and is caused by waves traveling at different speeds in different mediums ( or substances ). |
| Diffraction | is bending of waves around a barrier or the or spreading of waves past small openings. |
| Interference | The result of waves colliding with each other. |
| Constructive Interference | or they interfere with each other and cancel each other out. |
| Destructive Interference | When you jump on a trampoline with friends. you experience constructive and destructive interference. |
| Absorption | is the transfer of energy from a wave to matter as the wave passes through it. |
| Absorbed Colors | absorb only specific wavelengths which is how we see color. |
| Reflected Colors | When we see a red apple, it's because every other color EXCEPT red is being absorbed and red is being reflected. |
| Electromagnetic Spectrum | Electromagnetic waves are TRANVERSE WAVES, made of electric and magnetic fields. |
| Visible Light Spectrum | The only kind of electromagnetic wave, we can see with our bare eyes is visible light. which is only a tiny fraction of all electromagnetic waves the visible. |
| Longitudinal Wave | A sound wave is a LONGITUDINAL WAVE, which means that it oscillates in the same direction as it moves. |
| Expansion | the action of becoming larger or more extensive. |
| Compression | The INTENSITY of a sound wave is how much energy the sound wave carriers past a certain area. |
| Intensity | the INTENSITY of a sound wave is how energy the sound wave carries past a certain area. |
| Units of Sound | A sound wave can travel in matter only because it needs to transfer its energy from molecule to molecule. |
| Pitch | Our perception of sound wave frequency. |
| Analog Signal | carry information but vary continuously in both amplitude and frequency. |
| Digital Signal | send information as wave pulses, and communicate only through Is and Os, so the form that the in formation takes is much simpler. |
