Wave Basics & Characteristics
This is the distance from the equilibrium position to the maximum displacement (crest or trough) of a wave.
What is Amplitude?
This is the name of the imaginary line drawn perpendicular to a mirror's surface at the point where a light ray strikes.
What is the Normal?
This phenomenon occurs when a wave changes direction because its speed changes as it enters a new medium.
What is Refraction?
Unlike sound, all electromagnetic waves can travel through this "empty" environment.
What is a Vacuum?
These points on a standing wave appear to remain stationary and have zero amplitude.
What are Nodes?
This type of wave requires a medium (like air or water) to travel through.
What is a Mechanical Wave?
According to the Law of Reflection, if the angle of incidence is 35°, this is the angle of reflection.
What is 35°?
This type of lens is thicker in the middle than at the edges and is also known as a "converging" lens.
What is a Convex Lens?
This specific color of visible light has the longest wavelength and the lowest frequency.
What is Red?
This occurs when the crest of one wave meets the crest of another, resulting in a wave with a larger amplitude.
What is Constructive Interference?
This is the distance between two consecutive corresponding points on a wave, such as from crest to crest
What is Wavelength?
This type of mirror always makes things appear smaller (zoomed out).
What is a Convex Mirror?
This unitless number (labeled n) indicates how much light slows down when entering a specific material compared to a vacuum.
What is the Index of Refraction?
These EM waves have the highest frequency and highest energy on the spectrum.
What are Gamma Rays?
This occurs when a vibrating object forces another object to vibrate at its natural frequency.
What is resonance?
This wave characteristic remains constant even when a wave travels from one medium into another.
What is Frequency?
This is the name for a mirror that causes rays to spread out away from a common point (the focus).
What is a diverging mirror?
hen light travels from air (n=1.00) into glass (n=1.50), the light ray bends in this direction relative to the normal.
What is Toward the Normal?
This is the speed of all electromagnetic waves (light, X-rays, radio) in a vacuum.
What is 3.00 X 10^8 m/s?
If the distance between 4 successive nodes in a standing wave is 6.4 meters, this is the total wavelength of the wave.
What is 3.2 meters?
A wave has a frequency of 50 Hz and a wavelength of 2.0 meters. This is the speed of the wave.
What is 100 m/s?
An object is placed 20 cm in front of a plane mirror. This is the total distance between the object and its image.
What is 40 cm?
What will the speed of light be in lucite (n=1.50)?
What is 2.0X10^8 m/s?
List these three types of EM radiation in order of increasing wavelength: Blue Light, Infrared, and Radio Waves.
What are Blue Light, Infrared, and Radio Waves?
This is the amount of antinodes present in a standing wave with 6 nodes.
What is 5 antinodes?