Wave Basics
The highest point of a wave is called this.
What is a crest?
A concave lens causes light rays to do this.
What is diverge?
Sound waves are this type of wave.
What are longitudinal waves?
The bouncing of a wave off a surface is known as this.
What is reflection?
These seismic waves are the fastest and arrive first.
What are P-waves?
The distance from one crest to the next crest is known as this wave measurement.
What is wavelength?
This type of lens makes light rays come together at a focal point.
What is a convex lens?
The part of a sound wave where particles are spread apart is called this.
What is a rarefaction?
When a wave bends as it enters a new medium, this occurs.
What is refraction?
These seismic waves move side-to-side and cannot travel through solids.
What are S-waves?
If a wave’s frequency increases but its speed stays the same, what happens to its wavelength?
What is it decreases?
Why does a red object look red under white light?
What is it reflects red wavelengths and absorbs the others?
A truck honks its horn while moving toward you. What happens to the pitch you hear?
What is it increases?
Light bends toward the normal when it enters a medium that is ______.
What is denser or has a higher index of refraction?
Compare the motion of a Love wave to a Rayleigh wave.
What is Love waves move horizontally and vertically, while Rayleigh waves move in a rolling elliptical motion?
A wave has an amplitude that doubles. Describe how its energy changes.
What is it quadruples?
A concave mirror can form either real or virtual images. Explain what determines the type of image formed.
What is the object’s distance from the focal point?
Why does sound travel faster in solids than in gases?
What is because particles are closer together and transfer vibrations more quickly?
Explain why sound waves diffract more easily around corners than light waves.
What is because sound has much longer wavelengths?
A student places an object in front of both a concave mirror and a convex mirror at the same distance. The concave mirror forms a real, inverted image, while the convex mirror forms a virtual, upright image. Explain what differences in the way each mirror reflects light cause this.
Concave mirrors make parallel rays converge at a focal point, allowing real, inverted images to form when the object is beyond the focal length. Convex mirrors cause rays to diverge, so the image must always be virtual and upright.
A student claims that increasing the amplitude of a wave will increase the wave’s speed. Use the relationship among wave speed, frequency, and wavelength to evaluate the student’s claim.
What is the student is wrong because wave speed depends on the medium, not amplitude?
A student looks at an object using a convex mirror and notes the image is upright and smaller. Explain why convex mirrors always produce this type of image, using the behavior of reflected rays.
What is the reflected rays always diverge, so the image must be virtual, upright, and reduced?
A student claims that the Doppler effect changes the actual frequency produced by the source. Evaluate this claim using wavefront spacing and motion of the observer/source.
What is the claim is incorrect because only the observed frequency changes; the source frequency stays the same?
A student shines a laser into water at a steep angle and notices some of the light reflects instead of refracts. Explain why this happens using the critical angle concept.
What is total internal reflection occurs when the incident angle exceeds the critical angle?
Both a convex lens and a concave lens are used to observe the same object. The convex lens produces a larger image, while the concave lens produces a smaller one. Explain why these lenses behave differently.
Convex lenses converge light to form real magnified images when the object is beyond the focal point. Concave lenses always diverge light, forcing the brain to trace rays back to a smaller, virtual image.