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Waves

Transverse Waves Key terms: Amplitude – the height of a wave from the middle line to the crest or the trough. Crest – the top of the wave. Trough – the bottom of the wave. Wavelength – the distance from a point on a wave to a repeating point. Lamda ( λ) – the symbol for wavelength/.

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Waves

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  1. Transverse Waves Key terms: Amplitude – the height of a wave from the middle line to the crest or the trough. Crest – the top of the wave. Trough – the bottom of the wave. Wavelength – the distance from a point on a wave to a repeating point. Lamda (λ) – the symbol for wavelength/ Waves

  2. Waves • Longitudinal Waves • Key terms: • Compression – the part of the wave where the medium is compressed. • Rarefaction – the part of the wave where the medium is spread apart.

  3. Wave terms continued . . . Period (T) – the amount of time for a wave to travel one full wavelength. Frequency (f) – the number of full wavelengths a wave can travel in one second. Mathematically: T = 1/f and f = 1/T • They are inverses of each other.

  4. Wave Properties . . . • Waves move (like the stadium wave going around a sports event). They have speed and direction of travel. • A single wave is called a PULSE WAVE. • Waves do special things: • When a wave hits a hard surface, it will reflect. • And when it reflects, it “flips” • When two waves approach each other, they pass through each other like ghosts. • When they pass through, they interfere with each other. • When they interfere, they can become larger or smaller. This is called wave superposition. • At certain times, they can becomes twice as large or cancel each other out completely. This is call constructive interference or destructive interference.

  5. Wave Properties continued . . . • Wave Superposition means that as two waves pass through each other, their amplitudes are added together and a single wave results. So, if a wave with a 5m amplitude passes through another 5m amplitude wave, the resultant wave can be as tall as 10m. (this is constructive interference) • And, if a wave with a 5m amplitude passes through a -5m amplitude wave, the waves cancel each other out (this is destructive interference)

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