Electromagnetic Spectrum
This type of electromagnetic wave has the longest wavelength and is commonly used for AM radio broadcasting.
What is a radio wave?
This type of mechanical wave causes particles of the medium to oscillate parallel to the direction of wave travel, like sound waves in air.
What is a longitudinal wave?
This process occurs when a wave strikes a material and its energy is taken up by the material, often converting to heat.
What is absorption?
This common wireless technology uses radio waves to connect devices over short distances, often replacing cables between phones and headphones.
What is Bluetooth?
These repeating up-and-down or back-and-forth movements that transfer energy through a medium are called what?
What is a wave?
These waves have wavelengths just shorter than visible light and are responsible for causing sunburn.
What are ultraviolet (UV) rays?
This term describes the maximum displacement of a particle from its rest position in a wave and relates to the wave’s loudness or intensity.
What is amplitude?
This interaction sends a wave back into the original medium when it hits a boundary, following the law that the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection.
What is reflection?
This device uses high-frequency sound waves above human hearing to image internal structures in medicine or to measure distance in parking sensors.
What is an ultrasonic transducer (or ultrasound)?
The highest point of a transverse wave is called the _____.
What is a crest?
When electromagnetic waves pass from one medium to another and change direction, this phenomenon occurs.
What is refraction?
This is the distance between two corresponding points on consecutive cycles of a wave, such as crest to crest.
What is wavelength?
This phenomenon happens when a wave passes into a new medium and changes direction because its speed changes; it’s described by Snell’s law.
What is refraction?
This technology sends data over optical fibers using light, allowing high-speed internet and long-distance communication.
What is fiber-optic communication?
When two waves meet and their displacements add together, this is called the _____.
What is interference?
This range of the electromagnetic spectrum is used in medical imaging to view inside the body and has higher energy than UV but lower than gamma rays.
What are X-rays?
This quantity represents the speed at which a wave pattern (such as a pulse or crest) travels through a medium and equals wavelength times frequency.
What is wave speed?
This term describes a wave continuing through a material or boundary into the next medium instead of being reflected or absorbed.
What is transmission?
This imaging technology uses radio waves and strong magnetic fields to produce detailed images of the inside of the body without ionizing radiation.
What is MRI (magnetic resonance imaging)?
Sound travels fastest through the medium _________ at the fastest.
What is a solid?
This property of an electromagnetic wave describes the number of complete oscillations that pass a point per second and is measured in hertz.
What is frequency?
This effect occurs when the frequency of a wave changes for an observer moving relative to the source, commonly experienced with passing sirens.
What is the Doppler effect?
In atomic and molecular contexts, this process releases photons when excited particles return to lower energy states, producing waves of specific frequencies.
What is emission?
This system uses reflected radio waves to detect the position, speed, and direction of objects like airplanes or ships.
What is radar?
This term describes how high or low a sound seems to a listener and depends on a wave’s frequency.
What is pitch?