Name:
Block:
What are Waves?
1.What is a wave?
a disturbance that transfers energy from one place to
another without transferring matter
2. What do waves transfer from place to place?
energy
3. What happens to the raft, shown in the figure,
when the wave transfers energy to it.
The raft moves up and down.
4. What happens to water when an object hits it?
The impact transfers energy to the water, pushing
and pulling on the water particles.
5. How do particles move in a transverse wave?
perpendicular to the direction the wave travels
6. What is the medium through which the
longitudinal wave is moving in the figure?
A spring
7. How do particles move in a longitudinal wave?
parallel to the direction the wave travels
8. What is the difference in a transverse wave and
a longitudinal?
Transverse waves- perpendicular to the direction the
wave travels (up and down)
Longitudinal waves-parallel to the direction the wave
travels (left and right)
9. What produces mechanical waves?
Vibrating objects
10. Identify a type of wave that can travel through
a vacuum?
Electromagnetic waves
Name:
Block:
Properties of Waves
11. What is amplitude?
The maximum distance the particles in a medium
move from the rest position as the wave passes
through the medium
12. What is a wavelength?
The wavelength of a wave is the distance from one
point on a wave to the same point on the next wave.
13. What is frequency?
number of wavelengths that pass by a point each
second
14. How is the amplitude of transverse wave
measured?
In a transverse wave, wavelength is the distance
from one crest to the next or from one trough to the
next.
15. What is the difference between longitudinal
waves that have different amplitudes?
In a higher-amplitude wave, the particles in the
compressions are closer together and the particles in
the rarefactions are farther apart than in a
lower-amplitude wave.
16. How can you tell which has greater amount of
energy when two longitudinal waves are traveling
through the same medium?
The larger the amplitude of a wave is, the more
energy it has.
17. How is wavelength measured in a transverse
wave?
In a transverse wave, the wavelength is the distance
from one crest to the next or from one trough to the
next.
18. If you are measuring the wavelength of a
transverse wave, why doesn’t it matter whether
you measure it between troughs?
The distance in a transverse wave between one
crest and the next or one trough and the next will be
the same.
19. What are four properties of waves?
speed, amplitude, wavelength, and frequency
20. What are the frequencies of the waves in each
column?
left column: 0.25 Hz; right column: 0.5 Hz
21. How does the wavelength of a wave change if
its frequency decreases?
As the frequency of a wave decreases, its
wavelength increases.
22. What two things does wave speed depend
on?
wavelength and frequency
Name:
Block:
Wave Interactions
23. Why does the energy carried by sound waves
decrease as sound waves travel through air?
Air particles absorb energy as the sound waves
spread out.
24. What are the three ways that waves interact
with matter?
Matter absorbs, transmits, or reflects waves.
25. How do the angle of incidence and the angle
of reflection of the light rays shown in the figure
compare?
The angle of incidence and the angle of reflection are
the same.
26. What causes a light wave to change direction
when it moves from one material into another
material?
It changes speed.
27. What materials are the light rays moving
though in the figure on the left and right?
The light ray on the left is passing through air and
then water. The light ray on the right is passing
through water and then air.
28. What is reflection, refraction, and diffraction?
Reflection- the bouncing of a wave off a surface
Refraction- the change in direction of a wave as it
changes speed
Diffraction-change in direction of a wave when it
travels by the edge of an object or through an
opening
29. Which wave in the figure on the has the larger
The new wave temporarily created when wave A and
wave B overlap has the larger amplitude.
amplitude?
Name:
Block:
30. What happens to the amplitudes of waves as
a result of constructive interference?
The amplitude of the new wave is greater than either
of the original waves.
31. Describe the two types of wave interference.
Constructive interference occurs when crests overlap
crests and troughs overlap troughs.
Destructive interference occurs when crests overlap
troughs and troughs overlap crests.