Waves Flashcards
Cycle
A unit of motion that repeats over and over
One spin of a bicycle wheel is a cycle
Oscillation
Motion that repeats regularly
Frequency
The number of cycles per second.
Your heartbeat has a frequency between one-half and two cycles per second
Period
The time for one cycle to occur
Vibration
Another word used for back and forth
Hertz
The unit of one cycle per second
Amplitude
The size of a cycle
Damping
The gradual loss of amplitude of an oscillator
Phase
Tells you exactly where an oscillator is in its cycle
Equilibrium
The system at rest, undisturbed, with zero net force
Restoring force
Any force that always acts to pull the system back toward equilibrium
Resonance
Occurs when a periodic force has the same frequency as the natural frequency of the system
Harmonic motion
Motion that repeats
Natural frequency
The frequency at which a ststem naturally oscillates
Periodic force
A force that is repeated over and over
Light is the result of _
Harmonic motion of the electric and magnetic fields
Almost all modern communication technology relies on what?
Harmonic motion
The electronic technology in a cell phone uses an oscillator that makes more than 100 million cycles each second.
Frequency and what are inversely related?
Period. The period is the time per cycle
Frequency is meausures in ____
Hertz
A ___ is the building block of harmonic motion and has a beginning and an end.
Cycle
The time it takes for one cycle is called the ____.
Period
Motion that repeats itself over and over is called the ____.
Harmonic motion
The number of cycles an oscillator makes per second is called the ___.
Period
A pendulum, an atom, and the solar system are all examples of ___
Oscillators
____ describes the size of a cycle
Amplitude
Swinging motion is an example of a ____
Harmonic motion
