Definitions
Rhythmic disturbance which carries energy through matter or space
What is a wave?
Unit used to measure frequency
What is hertz?
The highest point or peak of a wave
What is a crest?
Light bending around a barrier or opening
What is diffraction?
A curved mirror whose reflecting surface bends outward
What is a convex mirror?
A wave that requires a medium through which to travel
What is a mechanical wave
The distance between crests of a wave
What is wavelength?
The lowest point of a wave
What is a trough?
The bouncing back of a wave when it hits a surface through which it cannot pass
What is reflection?
A curved mirror whose reflecting surface bends inward.
What is a concave mirror?
A material through which a wave travels
What is a medium?
The distance between the waves equilibrium and the crest or trough
What is amplitude?
The undisturbed medium
What is the normal or equilibrium?
The bending of a wave as it enters a new medium
What is refraction?
Produces a virtual, upright, and smaller image
What is a concave lens?
Matter in the medium moves back and forth along the same direction that the wave travels
What is a compressional wave?
How long it takes a wave to pass a point.
What is wave period?
Where the disturbance occurs
What is the origin?
As light passes from less dense medium into more dense medium, it will slow and bend towards the normal. If the light ray passes from more dense to less dense, it will speed up and bend away from the normal
What is the law of refraction?
A flat mirror that produces a virtual, upright image, latterly reversed that is the same size as the object
What is a plane mirror?
A wave that moves the medium in a direction perpendicular to the direction in which the wave travels
What is a transverse wave?
The number of waves passing a fixed point per second.
What is frequency?
A travelling disturbance through a medium
What is wave movement?
The angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection on a flat reflective surface
What is the law of reflection?
Produces a real, upside down, enlarged image
What is a convex lens?