Wave Anatomy
The distance from one crest to the next.
What is wavelength?
A wave where the medium vibrates perpendicular to the direction it travels.
What is a transverse wave?
Sound is this type of wave, where particles vibrate parallel to the direction of travel.
What is a longitudinal wave?
This travels significantly faster than sound, which is why we see lightning before we hear thunder.
What is light?
As you drive away from a stationary siren, the pitch does this.
What is get lower?
The maximum displacement of a wave from its rest position.
What is amplitude?
A disturbance in matter that transfers energy through that matter.
What is a mechanical wave?
The reason why meteor collisions in space movies are silent in real life.
What is sound needs a medium/cannot travel in a vacuum?
If the medium stays the same, sound travels faster at this temperature condition.
What is a higher temperature?
Sound waves with low pitch have this type of frequency.
What is low frequency?
The highest point on a transverse wave.
What is the crest?
A wave where the medium vibrates parallel to the direction of travel.
What is a longitudinal wave?
The number of wave cycles that pass a point in one second.
What is frequency?
Traveling at any speed faster than the speed of sound in a given medium.
What is supersonic speed?
Sound waves with low pitch have this type of wavelength.
What is a long wavelength?
As this feature of a wave increases, the energy of the wave also increases.
What is frequency or amplitude?
In this specific wave type, the medium moves at a 90-degree angle to the wave path.
What is a transverse wave?
This unit is used to measure the intensity or loudness of a sound.
What is a decibel?
A jet traveling faster than sound creates this loud explosive noise.
What is a sonic boom?
This phenomenon explains why the pitch of a siren changes as you move relative to it.
What is the Doppler Effect?
Surface waves on a pool will cause a float to do this rather than move it to the edge.
What is move up and down (vibrate in place)?
Waves transfer this from one place to another, but they do not transfer matter.
What is energy?
Large-amplitude sound waves are characterized by having a greater this.
What is intensity (or loudness)?
To find frequency, you divide this by the wavelength.
What is wave speed?
If a car with a siren approaches you, the sound waves are compressed, causing this to happen to the pitch.
What is the pitch gets higher?