Types of Waves
A rhythmic disturbance that transfers energy through matter or space.
What is a wave?
Describe a crest and trough
The crest is the highest point on the wave, and the trough is the lowest point on the wave.
When a wave strikes an object and bounces off of it
What is relflection?
Waves that can only travel through a medium
What is a mechanical wave?
The distance between one point on a wave and the nearest point just like it
What is the wavelength?
When a wave strikes an object and goes into it
What is absorption?
Waves capable of transferring energy through a vacuum
What is an electromagnetic wave?
The amount of time it takes one wavelength to pass a point
What is the period?
When an object causes a wave to change direction and bend around it
What is diffraction?
Matter through which a wave travels through; can be a solid, liquid or gas
What is a medium?
The number of waves that pass a given point in one second
What is the frequency?
What is refraction?
One example of a mechanical wave, and one example of an electromagnetic wave
Electromagnetic waves: light waves
Mechanical waves: sound waves, water waves
The amount of energy carried by a wave
What is the amplitude?
How does a prism work?
Light waves enter into the prism and slow down due to the change in medium, causing the waves to bend as they move through the medium.