Module 11

Question 1

What is a wave?

Answer 1

A disturbance that propagates (moves) in a medium

Question 2

What is amplitude (A)?

Answer 2

The height of a wave.

Question 3

What is wavelength (lamda)?

Answer 3

The distance between the crests (or troughs) of waves.

Question 4

What is frequency (f)?

Answer 4

The number of waves that hit a certain point every second.

Question 5

What is a transverse wave?

Answer 5

A wave whose propagation (movement) is perpendicular to its oscillation.

Question 6

What is a longitudinal wave?

Answer 6

A wave whose propagation (movement) is parallel to its oscillation.

Question 7

What is compression?

Answer 7

The crests of a longitudinal wave.

Question 8

What are refractions?

Answer 8

The troughs of a longitudinal wave.

Question 9

What is pitch?

Answer 9

An indication on how high or low a sound is, which is primarily determined by the frequency of the sound wave.

Question 10

What is volume?

Answer 10

An indication of how loud a sound is, which is determined primarily by the amplitude of the sound wave.

Question 11

Are sound waves longitudinal or transverse?

Answer 11

Longitudinal.

Question 12

What is the Doppler effect?

Answer 12

The change in pitch caused by relative motion between the source of the sound and the observer of the sound.

Question 13

What are sonic waves?

Answer 13

Sound waves with a frequency between 20 and 20,000 Hz. These are sound waves people can hear.

Question 14

What are ultrasonic waves?

Answer 14

Sound waves with a frequency greater than 20,000 Hz. People can’t hear these.

Question 15

What are infrasonic waves?

Answer 15

Sound waves with a frequency under 20 Hz. People can’t hear these.

Question 16

What is the speed of light in air (to 2 significant figures)?

Answer 16

3.0 x 10^8 m/sec

Question 17

What does the speed of light depend on?

Answer 17

The speed of light changes depending on the medium through which they travel. Generally speaking, as the medium gets more dense, light waves slow down.

Question 18

What is diffraction?

Answer 18

The spreading of waves around an obstacle.

Question 19

What is a coherent light wave?

Answer 19

Light waves in which the spatial relationship of the crests and troughs of one wave compared to the other does not change.

Question 20

What is wave interference?

Answer 20

The phenomenon that occurs when 2 or more waves overlap their crests and troughs mix to make a different wave.

Question 21

What is constructive interference?

Answer 21

The phenomenon that occurs when 2 or more waves overlap so that their crests and troughs add together to make larger crests and troughs.

Question 22

What is destructive interference?

Answer 22

The phenomenon that occurs when 2 or more waves overlap so that their crests and troughs cancel one another out.

Question 23

What is photoelectric effect?

Answer 23

The term that refers to the fact that when light is shone on certain metals, electrons can be liberated from the metal.

Question 24

What are photoelectrons?

Answer 24

Electrons liberated from a metal via the photoelectric effect.

Question 25

What is work function?

Answer 25

The energy that an electron in a metal must have in order to break free of the metal.

Question 26

What is partical-wave duality?

Answer 26

The idea that anything in nature has both wave-like characteristics and particle-like characteristics.

Question 27

What is Plancks constant?

Answer 27

6.63 x 10^-34