WAVE ANATOMY
The highest point of a wave.
CREST
This is the only part of the electromagnetic spectrum that human eyes can detect.
VISIBLE LIGHT
Light bounces off a surface
REFLECTION
This dark pigment in skin absorbs UV light and helps protect skin cells.
MELANIN
This is why we see color
The lowest point of a wave.
TROUGH
Of all the electromagnetic waves, these have the longest wavelength and lowest frequency.
RADIO WAVES
Matter is damaged or changed when light does this.
ABSORBED
The layer of gas in the Earth's atmosphere that absorbs UV light
OZONE
TV signals travel as this part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
RADIO WAVES
This property, the distance from one crest to the next, is measured in meters (or nanometers for light).
WAVELENGTH
Thermal imaging cameras detect these waves, which have a longer wavelength than red light but a shorter wavelength than microwaves.
INFRARED WAVES
Frosted glass is this type of material, because it lets some light through but scatters it.
UV light can damage skin cells while visible light generally cannot, because UV has a higher value of this wave property, so each wave carries more energy.
FREQUENCY
Of P waves, S waves, and surface waves, this one arrives at a seismograph first.
P WAVES
The number of complete waves that pass a point each second, measured in hertz.
FREQUENCY
In a vacuum, all electromagnetic waves share this property, about 3.0 × 10^8 meters per second.
THEY ALL TRAVEL AT THE SAME SPEED
A material that allows no light to pass through it.
OPAQUE
STRATOSPHERE
MATTER/MEDIUM
Two beams of green light have the same wavelength, but Beam X has twice the amplitude of Beam Y. Beam X is this compared with Beam Y.
BEAM X IS BRIGHTER
Moving from radio waves toward gamma rays, wavelength does this while frequency and energy do the opposite.
WAVELENGTH DECREASES while FREQUENCY and ENERGY INCREASE
A red apple lit only by pure blue light looks nearly black because the apple does this to the blue light.
ABSORBS THE BLUE LIGHT
Name two factors that together help explain why skin cancer rates in Australia are so high: one about the atmosphere or sunlight, and one about people's skin.
High UV exposure (helped by thinning ozone) and fair skin with low melanin
P waves and S waves are both types of these waves produced by earthquakes.
SEISMIC WAVES