Waves Flashcards
A repeating disturbance or movement that transfers energy through matter or space.
Waves
The matter the waves travel to.
Medium
Matter in the medium moves back and forth at right angles to the direction that the wave travels.
Transverse wave
Matter in the medium moves back and forth along the same direction that the wave travels.
Compressional wave
This is also a longitudinal wave.
Sound Waves
A combination of longitudinal and transverse waves and are surface waves.
Water Waves
When the breaking crust vibrates.
Seismic Waves
When the transverse wave has alternating high points.
Crests
When the transverse wave has alternating low points.
Troughs
Less dense region of a compressional wave.
Rarefaction
The distance between one point on a wave and the nearest point just like it.
Wavelength
The number of wavelengths that pass a fixed point each second.
Frequency
The energy carried by the wave.
Amplitude
The bending of a wave.
Refraction
When an object causes a wave to bend.
DIffraction
When two or more waves overlap and combine to form a new wave.
Interference
A special type of wave pattern that forms when waves equal in wave length and amplitude.
Standing Wave
The process by which an object is made to vibrate by absorbing energy at its natural frequencies.
Resonance
A tough membrane.
Eardrum
The inner ear contains this.
Cochlea
The amount of energy that flows through a certain area in a certain amount of time.
Intensity
The human perception of sound intensity.
Loudness
Each unit on the scale for sound intensity.
Decibel
How high or low a sound seems to be.
Pitch
Sound frequencies above 20,000 Hz.
Ultra sonic
The change in pitch due to a moving wave source.
Doppler effect
Made of sounds that are used in a pattern.
Music
The difference among sounds of the same pitch and loudness.
Sound Quality
A vibration whose frequency is a multiple of the fundamental frequency.
Overtone
A hollow chamber filled with air.
Resinator
The study of sound.
Acoustics
The process of locating objects by emitting sounds and interpreting the sound Waves that are reflected back.
Echolocation
A system that uses the reflection of underwater sound Waves to detect objects.
Sonar
