Sound And Light Waves Flashcards
Refraction
The bending of light waves when they sound into a medium e.g air into water
Specular Reflection
This is when something is reflected from a smooth surface
Diffuse Scattering
Reflection from a rough surface
Law of Reflection
When light is reflected from a mirror, the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection.
Plane mirror
A plane mirror is a flat mirror. When you look at a plain mirror, you see a reflected image of yourself.
Medium
Either a solid, liquid or gas that helps sound travel.
Incident ray
The ray that hits the mirror from your ray box is called an incident ray.
Reflected ray
The ray that is reflected off the ray.
The angle of refraction
The distance between the normal and the reflected ray.
Cornea
The lens that focuses the light onto the retina
Lens
The lens focuses the light and enables to you to see.
Retina
This is when an image is formed. Light travels through the pupil of your eye into the retina
Convex Lens
A convex lens converges light into your retina.
Concave Lens
It diverges light onto the retina
Dispersion
When white light passes through a prism and then different colours of the spectrum separate.
Spectrum
This is when the light waves ( white light )are refracted in a triangular prism and then a rainbow of colours spreads out.
Waves
A wave is an oscillation or vibration that transfers energy or information.
Peak/Crest/trough
A peak or crest is the top of the wave. The bottom of a wave is called a trough.
Oscillations
An oscillation is a vibration that transfers energy.
Pitch
It shows how high or low a sound is.
Amplitude
The distance from the middle to the top or bottom of a wave.
Frequency
The numbers of waves that go pasta particular point per second.
Wavelength
A wavelength is the distance from one point of a wave to the same point on the next wave.
Transverse wave
This is when the oscillation is at 90 degrees to the direction of a wave.
Longitudinal waves
This is when the oscillation is the same direction of the wave.
Speed of light
The speed of light is 300 000 000 m/s
Speed of Sound
The speed of sound is 349 m/s in air, 1500 m/s in liquids and 5000 m/s in a solid.
Audible Range
A particular frequency of what you can hear. You have the biggest audible range when your young 20-20000 Hz. Your audible range changes as you get older. You will find it more difficult to hear high-frequency sounds.
Vacuum
This when there are no air molecules to vibrate like space.
Ultrasound
Ultrasound is sound with a high frequency above 20 000 Hz. Doctors use it to make images of unborn babies. Bats use it to find their food.
Echo
When sound reflects off a surface it produces an echo. Sound takes time to travel. There os a time delay making a sound and hearing an echo.
Reverberation
If lots of echos join together to produce a longer sound this is called reverberation. It can be annoying in concert halls or cinemas. You can reduce the noise by covering the walls with soft materials and putting carpets on the floor.
