Wave Flashcards
What is wave motion?
A means of transferring energy in which particles of the medium vibrate about their positions of equilibrium
What are the two main types of mechanical waves?
Transverse and Longitudinal
What is a transverse wave?
A wave that travels perpendicularly to the direction of the vibrations producing the wave.
Give examples of transverse waves.
Water waves
What is a longitudinal wave?
A wave that travels in a direction parallel to the vibrations of the medium.
Give an example of a longitudinal wave.
Sound waves.
What is the period (T) of a wave?
The time taken by a wave particle to make one complete oscillation.
What is a crest (in a wave)?
The region of maximum upward displacement.
What is wavelength?
The distance between two successive crests or successive troughs (or two successive points in phase) of a wave.
What is frequency (f)?
The number of complete vibrations or cycles that a particle makes in one second.
What is amplitude (in a wave)?
The maximum displacement of a particle from its rest position.
What is a trough (in a wave)?
The region of maximum downward displacement.
Define a wavefront.
A line or surface in the path of an advancing wave on which all the particles are vibrating in step or in phase.
How are period (T) and frequency (f) related?
T = 1/f and f = 1/T
What is the law of reflection?
The angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection.
What is the angle of reflection?
The angle between the direction of motion of the reflected plane wavefront and the normal to the plane surfaces.
What is the angle of incidence?
The angle which the direction of motion of the plane wavefront makes with the normal to the metal surface.
What is the relationship between wave speed (v)
frequency (f)
What is wave speed (v)?
The distance which the wave travels in one second.
What is refraction of waves?
The change of direction of a wave as it passes obliquely from one medium to another.
What property of a wave remains constant during refraction?
Frequency.
What is interference of waves?
The superposition of two or more waves meeting at a point in a medium.
What property of a wave changes during refraction?
Wavelength and speed.
What happens when a plane wave falls on a curved reflector (convex)?
The reflected waves will be found to be spherical or circular and diverge from F behind the convex reflector.
