Chapter 1: Light & Waves Flashcards
What are waves?
Waves transfer energy from one place to another and don’t transfer any matter.
What is the distance for waves?
The distance is how far the waves haves travelled from it’s starting point.
What is the amplitude of waves?
The amplitude is how far the waves have oscillated from the equilibrium.
What is the wavelength?
Wavelength is defined as the measured distance between two identical points on two consecutive waves.
What is the period?
The time it takes to complete one whole cycle (in seconds=
What is the frequency?
1/T (In Hz)
What is the wave speed?
V (Wave speed in m/s) = f (frequency in Hz) multiplied by λ (It’s in meters)
To remember he colors we can use the acronym ROYGBIV
R = Red, O = Orange, Y = Yellow, G = Green, B = Blue, I = Indigo, V = Violet
What are the reason objects look like certain colors
There are 2 reasons: Wavelengths of the light hitting it and the properties of the object.
What are the 3 different states of object?
Absrobed, Reflected and Transmitted
Give an example of an opaque object
A cat, a dog a book
Why would a cat look yellow?
If the cat is yellow that means it absorbed all the colors except yellow which is reflected.
What is transparent?
The glass in the windows transmit nearly all the the light and only a small fraction of them are absorbed or reflected. That si transparent.
What is translucent?
This is basically semi-transparent.
What are wavelengths?
Only certain wavelengths can pass through them.
What can occupy the same space?
Matter can’t occupy the same place as another matter however waves can since they are only a displacement of matter.
What is superposition?
When 2 waves combine they will exhibit super position.
What is interference?
When 2 waves have contact with each other it is known as interference.
What happens to the amplitude during an interference?
During an interference, let’s say a wave has an amplitude of X upon contact it will get turned into 2x the amplitude however as soon as the waves pass each other they will revert back to their original amplitude.
