The Anatomy of a Wave
This is the term for the maximum displacement of a wave from its resting position.
What is amplitude?
This is the term for a wave bouncing off a surface back into its original medium.
What is reflection?
This property of a sound wave determines how loud it sounds.
What is amplitude (intensity)?
On a standing wave, this is the name for a point that never moves.
What is a node?
Visible light, radio waves, and X-rays are all examples of this type of wave.
What are electromagnetic waves?
This is the term for the distance between two consecutive crests of a wave.
What is wavelength?
This is the term for the bending of a wave as it passes from one medium into another.
What is refraction?
Sound needs this in order to travel, which is why there's no sound in space.
What is a medium (matter)?
A standing wave forms when two waves of the same frequency travel in these directions.
What is opposite directions?
All electromagnetic waves travel at this same speed in a vacuum.
What is the speed of light (3 × 10⁸ m/s)?
Amplitude is related to this property of a wave — the energy it carries.
What is energy (higher amplitude = more energy)?
This is the term for waves bending around obstacles or spreading out after passing through an opening.
What is diffraction?
Of a solid, liquid, and gas at the same temperature, sound travels fastest through this one.
What is the solid?
When you push a swing at just the right timing to make it go higher, you are using this phenomenon.
What is resonance?
Of radio waves and gamma rays, this one has the longer wavelength.
What are radio waves?
Two waves have the same wavelength, but one has double the amplitude. This is how their energies compare.
What is the larger one carries four times the energy? (Energy ∝ amplitude²)
Diffraction is most noticeable when the size of the opening compares to the wavelength in this way.
What is when the opening is about the same size as (or smaller than) the wavelength?
Two musical notes are played. One is an octave higher than the other. This is the relationship between their frequencies.
What is the higher note has double the frequency?
A string fixed at both ends plays its fundamental tone. To play a note one octave higher (double the frequency), you halve this.
What is the length of the string? (Half the length = double the frequency)
Of red light and violet light, this one has the higher frequency and therefore carries more energy per photon.
What is violet light?
A wave's frequency doubles while its speed stays the same. This is what happens to its wavelength, and why.
What is it halves — because v = fλ, so if v is constant and f doubles, λ must halve?
A wave refracts when it changes mediums because this property changes, while frequency stays constant.
What is wave speed (which forces wavelength to change, bending the wave)?
A guitar string and a flute play the same pitch at the same loudness, yet you can still tell them apart. This is the property responsible, and what physically causes it.
What is timbre — caused by the different mix of harmonics (overtones) each instrument produces?
A tube open at both ends and a tube of the same length closed at one end are compared. The closed tube plays a fundamental that is this much lower, because its fundamental wavelength is this much longer.
What is an octave lower (half the frequency) — because the closed tube's fundamental wavelength is twice as long (4L vs 2L)?
Going from radio waves up to gamma rays across the electromagnetic spectrum, these two properties increase while this third one stays constant.
What is frequency and energy increase, while speed stays constant (in a vacuum)?