Types of Waves Flashcards
What is a Wave?
A disturbance that carries energy through matter and space.
What is a Medium?
When involved with waves, it is something that a wave travels through.
What are Mechanical Waves?
Waves that require a medium. Most are mechanical, but light isn’t.
How do Electromagnetic Waves (Light specifically) travel without a medium?
Because light waves consist of changing electric and magnetic fields, they can travel through the vacuum of spaces and are only stopped by non-transparent walls/surfaces.
Do Waves transfer Energy?
Yes. We know that energy is the ability to do work and we know waves do work.
Why is Light and Sound weaker at a distance?
Assuming there are no walls, sound/light will travel outwards in a perfect circle. As the rings widen and get farther away there is less energy.
How are Sound Waves started?
Vibrations cause sound waves. When a metal object is hit, for example, it rings because the particles are vibrating and trying to get back to their original position.
What is the Term for Vibration that fades out as Energy is transfered?
It is called Damped Harmonic Motion.
What is a Transverse Wave?
A wave in which the motion is perpendicular to the direction that the light travels. These are usually represented as the wavy lines. Light is the most common transverse wave.
What is a Longitudinal Wave?
A wave where the particles in the medium vibrate parallel to the direction of the wave motion. The most common representation of this is a horizontal slinky where the spirals clump up in a back-and-forth pattern. Sound waves are the most common longitudinal wave.
What is the motion of particles in a Surface Wave?
Surface Waves move in circles. An object gets brought up, the wave goes under it and keeps going, and the object is back to its original point until another wave comes and repeats the process again. Ocean waves are Surface Waves.
