Chapter: Waves Table of Contents Section 3: Wave BehaviorWave Behavior Section 1: What are waves? Section 2: Wave PropertiesWave Properties

Chapter: Waves

Table of ContentsTable of Contents

Section 3: Wave Behavior

Section 1: What are waves?

Section 2: Wave Properties

• When you are relaxing on an air mattress in a pool and someone does a cannonball dive off the diving board, you suddenly find yourself bobbing up and down.

What is a wave?

What are waves?What are waves?

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• The up-and-down motion was caused by the peaks and valleys of the ripple that moved from where the splash occurred.

What is a wave?


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• These peaks and valleys make up water waves.

• Rhythmic disturbances that carry energy without carrying matter are called waves.

Waves Carry Energy


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• You can see the energy of the wave from a speedboat traveling outward, but the water only moves up and down.

• If you’ve ever felt a clap of thunder, you know that sound waves can carry large amounts of energy.

• Passing a ball down a line of people is a model for how waves can transport energy without transporting matter.

A Model for Waves


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• Even though the ball has traveled, the people in line have not moved.

• Think about the ripples on the surface or a pond. The energy carried by the ripples travels through the water.

A Model for Waves


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• In a water wave, water molecules bump each other and pass energy from molecule to molecule.

• Waves, which use matter to transfer energy, are called mechanical waves.

Mechanical Waves


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• The matter through which a mechanical wave travels is called a medium.

• For ripples on a pond, the medium is the water.

• A mechanical wave travels as energy is transferred from particle to particle in the medium.

Mechanical Waves


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• For example, a sound wave is a mechanical wave that can travel through air, as well as solids, liquids, and other gases.

• In a mechanical transverse wave, the wave energy causes the matter in the medium to move up and down or back and forth at right angles to the direction the wave travels.

Transverse Waves


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• You can make a model of a transverse wave.

• Stretch a long rope out on the ground. Hold one end in your hand.

• Now shake the end in you hand back and forth.

Transverse Waves


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• The high points on the waves are called crests and the low points are called troughs.

• Mechanical waves can be either transverse or compressional.

Compressional Waves


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• In a compressional wave, matter in the medium moves forward and backward along the same direction that the wave travels.

• You can make a compressional wave by squeezing together and releasing several coils of a coiled spring toy.

Compressional Waves


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• Sound waves are compressional waves.

Sound Waves


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• If you touch a stereo speaker while it’s playing, you can feel it vibrating.

• All waves are produced by something that is vibrating.

• Look at the drum shown.

Making Sound Waves


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• When you hit the drumhead it starts vibrating up and down.

• As the drumhead moves upward, the molecules next to it are pushed closer together.

Making Sound Waves


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• This group of molecules that are closer together is a compression.

• When the drumhead moves downward, the molecules near it have more room and can spread farther apart.

Making Sound Waves


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• This group of molecules that are farther apart is a rarefaction.

• As the drumhead vibrates up and down, it forms a series of compressions and rarefactions that move away and spread out in all directions.

Making Sound Waves


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• This series of compressions and rarefactions is a sound wave.

• Waves that can travel through space where there is no matter are electromagnetic waves.

Electromagnetic Waves


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Electromagnetic Waves


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• There are different types of electromagnetic waves, including radio waves, infrared waves, visible light waves, ultraviolet waves, x rays, and gamma rays.

• These waves can travel in matter or in space.

• The sun emits electromagnetic waves that travel through space and reach Earth.

Radiant Energy From the Sun


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• The energy carried by electromagnetic waves is called radiant energy.

• Almost 92 percent of the radiant energy that reaches Earth from the Sun is carried by infrared and visible light waves.

11Section CheckSection CheckSection CheckSection Check

Question 1

A rhythmic disturbance that carries energy but not matter is known as a _______.

A. electronB. matterC. volcanoD. wave

11Section CheckSection Check

Answer

The correct answer is D. Think of the wave that you send across a bed sheet by shaking one end. Matter does not move across the bed sheet, only energy.


Question 2

The sound of someone clapping their hands is a wave. Can you explain how?

Answer

Energy from the clap moves out through the air; it is a rhythmic disturbance that travels away from the source.


Question 3Why wouldn’t a drum solo sound good in outer space?

AnswerYou wouldn’t be able to hear a drum in outer space. Where there’s no air, there can be no compression and rarefaction, and thus no sound waves.

Amplitude• How high the wave rises above, or falls

below, the normal level is called the wave’s amplitude.

• The amplitude of a transverse wave is one-half the distance between a crest and a trough.

Wave PropertiesWave Properties

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Amplitude and Energy

• A wave’s amplitude is related to the energy that the wave carries.

• For example, the electromagnetic waves that make up bright light have greater amplitudes than the waves that make up dim light.


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Amplitude and Energy

• Tsunamis are huge sea waves that are caused by underwater earthquakes along faults on the seafloor.

• The movement of the seafloor along a fault produces the wave.


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• The tremendous amounts of energy tsunamis carry cause great damage when they move ashore.

Wavelength• For a transverse wave, wavelength is the

distance from the top of one crest to the top of the next crest, or from the bottom of one trough to the bottom of the next trough.


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Wavelength


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• For a compressional wave, the wavelength is the distance between the center of onecompression and the center of the next compression, or from the center one rarefaction to the center of the next rarefaction.

Wavelength• Electromagnetic waves

have wavelengths that range from kilometers, for radio waves, to less than a diameter of an atom, for X rays and gamma rays.


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• This range is called the electromagnetic spectrum.

Frequency

• The frequency of a wave is the number of wavelengths that pass a given point in 1 s.


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• The faster the vibration is, the higher the frequency is of the wave that is produced.

• The unit of frequency is the number of wavelengths per second, or hertz (Hz).

A Sidewalk Model

• For waves that travel with the same speed, frequency and wavelength are related.


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• To model this relationship, imagine people on two parallel moving sidewalks in an airport.

A Sidewalk Model• One sidewalk has four travelers spaced

4 m apart.


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• The other sidewalk has 16 travelers spaced 1 mile apart.

• When people are father apart on a moving sidewalk, fewer people pass the pillar every minute.

Frequency and Wavelength

• Smaller frequencies result in longer wavelengths.


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• Higher frequencies result in shorter wavelengths.

• This is true for all waves that travel at the same speed. As the frequency of a wave increases, its wavelength decreases.

Color and Pitch

• Because frequency and wavelength are related, either the wavelength or frequency of a light wave determines the color of the light.


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• Either the wavelength or frequency determines the pitch of a sound wave.

Color and Pitch

• Pitch is how high or low a sound seems to be.


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• Wavelength and frequency are also related for sound waves traveling in air.

• As the frequency of sound waves increases, their wavelengths decrease.

Color and Pitch• This figure shows how the frequency and

wavelength change for notes of a musical scale.


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Wave Speed

• Light travels through air at about 300 million m/s. Sound travels through air at about 340 m/s.


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Wave Speed

• The speed of any wave can be calculated from this equation.


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• In this equation, the wavelength is represented by the symbol, λ, which is the Greek letter lambda.

Wave Speed

• When mechanical waves, such as sound, and electromagnetic waves, such as light, travel in different materials, they change speed.


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• Mechanical waves usually travel faster in solids, and slowest in gases.

• Electromagnetic waves travel fasted in gases and slowest in solids.

22Section CheckSection CheckSection CheckSection Check

Question 1What is represented by letter C in this illustration?

A. amplitudeB. crestC. rest positionD. trough


Answer

The answer is A. The amplitude of a transverse wave is a measure of how high the crests are or how deep the troughs are.


Question 2

The amplitude of a transverse wave is _______ the distance between a crest and a trough.

A. one-eighthB. one-fourthC. one-thirdD. one-half


Answer

The answer is D. The amplitude of a transverse wave is one-half the distance between a crest and a trough.


Question 3

If a wave has a frequency of 550 Hz and a wavelength of 90 m, what is its speed?

Answer

The wave speed is 49,500 m/s. Wave speed is calculated by multiplying frequency times the wavelength.

Reflection

• Reflection occurs when a wave strikes an object or surface and bounces off.

• Sound reflects from all surfaces.

Wave BehaviorWave Behavior

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• Your echo bounces off the walls, floor, ceiling, furniture, and people.

Reflection

• You see your face in a mirror or a still pond because of reflection.

• Light waves produced by a source of light such as the sun or a lightbulb bounce off your face, strike the mirror, and reflect back to your eyes.


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Reflection

• When a surface is smooth and even, the reflected image is clear and sharp.

• When light reflects from an uneven or rough surface, you can’t see a sharp image because the reflected light scatters in many different directions.


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Refraction

• The bending of a wave as it moves from one medium into another is called refraction.


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Refraction and Wave Speed• Refraction occurs when the speed of a wave

changes as it passes from one substance to another.


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• A line that is perpendicular to the water’s surface is called the normal.

• When a light ray passes from air into water, it slows down and bends toward the normal.

Refraction and Wave Speed

• When the ray passes from water into air, it speeds up and bends away from the normal.


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Refraction and Wave Speed


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• Refraction makes the fish appear to be closer to the surface and farther away from you than in really is.

Color from Refraction

• When sunlight passes through a prism, refraction occurs twice: once when sunlight enters the prism, and again when it leaves the prism and returns to the air.


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• Violet light has the shortest wavelength and is bent the most.

• Red light has the longest wavelength and is bent the least.

Color from Refraction• Refraction produces a

rainbow when light waves from the Sun pass into and out of water droplets.


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• The colors you see in a rainbow are in order of decreasing wavelength: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

Diffraction

• Why can you hear music from the band room when you are down the hall?


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• Sound waves bend as they pass through an open doorway.

• Diffraction is the bending of waves around a barrier.

Diffraction

• Light waves do bend around the edges of an open door.


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• However, for an opening as wide as a door, the amount the light bends is extremely small.

Diffraction and Wavelength

• Light waves have wavelengths between about 400 and 700 billionths of a meter, while the width of a doorway is about one meter.


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• Sound waves that you can hear have wavelengths between a few millimeters and about 10 m. They bend more easily around the corners of an open door.

Diffraction of Water Waves• When water waves strike obstacles such as

islands, they don’t stop moving.


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• If the size and spacing of the islands is not too different from the wavelength of the water waves, the water waves bend around the islands, and keep on moving.

• If the islands are much larger than the water wavelength, less diffraction would occur.

What happens when waves meet?


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• Waves behave differently from billiard balls when they meet.

• Waves pass right through each other and continue moving.

• Do waves collide like billiard balls and change direction?

Wave Interference

• While two waves overlap a new wave is formed by adding the two waves together.


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• The ability of two waves to combine and form a new wave when they overlap is called interference.

Wave Interference

• Sometimes when the waves meet, the crest of one wave overlaps the crest of another wave.


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• This is called constructive interference.

• The amplitude of these combining waves adds together to make a larger wave while they overlap.

Wave Interference• Destructive interference occurs when the

crest of one wave overlaps the trough of another wave.


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• The amplitudes of the two waves combine to make a wave with a smaller amplitude.

Click image to view movie.

Waves and Particles

• Like waves of water, when light travels through a small opening, such as a narrow slit, the light spreads out in all directions on the other side of the slit.


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• If small particles, instead of waves, were sent through the slit, they would continue in a straight line without spreading.

Reducing Noise• Loud sounds have waves with larger

amplitudes and carry more energy than softer sounds.


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• Damage to the ear from loud sounds can be prevented by reducing the energy that reaches the ear.

Section CheckSection Check


Question 1

When a wave strikes a surface and bounces off, you have a _______.

A. compressionB. rarefactionC. reflectionD. wavelength


33Answer

The answer is C. You are used to visual reflections, but an echo is also a reflection—of a sound wave.


33Question 2

Explain the difference between reflection and refraction.

Answer

Reflection is the bouncing of a wave off a surface. Refraction is the bending of a wave as it moves from one medium to another.


33Question 3

The larger the change in the speed of a light wave passing from one medium to another, the larger the _______.


33Answer

The answer is change in direction. Light passing out of water into air speeds up and is refracted away from the normal.

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Chapter: Waves Table of Contents Section 3: Wave BehaviorWave Behavior Section 1: What are waves? Section 2: Wave PropertiesWave Properties