Waves are Everywhere! Waves are Everywhere! by Caitlyn Meagher A diagram of a wave showing wavelength, frequency, and amplitude CNX OpenStax via Wikimedia Whether you are rocking out to songs at a concert or staring at a rainbow in the sky, waves are responsible for making it all possible. Some waves can be easily seen by the human eye, and others are traveling invisibly through the air. Waves can help transfer energy from one place to another and play a critical role in allowing us to see light energy, hear sound energy, and more! Simple waves have a repeating pattern with three important characteristics: wavelength, frequency, and amplitude. Understanding these characteristics of waves can illuminate the world around you. Let's dive in! Wavelength Imagine that you're standing on a beach, watching the waves crash onto the shore again and again. One after another, waves travel towards you before crashing onto the beach. The distance from one point on a wave to an identical point on the next is called its wavelength. The top of a wave is called its crest and the bottom of a wave is called its trough. So, to measure wavelength, a person would measure consecutive waves from crest to crest or from trough to trough. Even though you can't see the waves themselves, light travels in waves! Just like ocean waves, light waves have specific wavelengths. Every color of visible light we see around us is formed by waves of different wavelengths. Red light has the longest wavelength, while violet light has the shortest. Have you ever seen a sunset that makes the sky look red? At sunset, light has further to travel through the atmosphere than at midday. So, the shorter wavelengths, like blue and violet, are scattered in all directions by particles in the air, while the longer wavelengths, like orange and red, are less affected by these particles. That is why red and orange light reaches people's eyes during a sunset. Frequency Another characteristic of simple waves is frequency. Imagine you are clapping along at a concert. One of the songs may have a lively, fast beat. Another song may be a slower melody. If the songs ReadWorks.org · © 2023 ReadWorks®, Inc. All rights reserved. Waves are Everywhere! were the same length, you'd end up clapping many more times in the fast song than the slow one. The frequency of claps is higher in the fast song than the slow one. Wave frequency acts in the same way! High frequency waves occur rapidly while low frequency waves occur less frequently. The frequency of a wave refers to how many waves pass one point in one second. The units used to measure wave frequency are hertz. The higher the number of hertz, the greater the frequency of waves. Waves with a higher frequency have crests that are closer together, which means they also have shorter wavelengths. One way that wave frequency comes into play in everyday life is through sound and music. Just like light, sound travels in waves. And furthermore, each musical instrument generates its own unique wave pattern. These waves are created by vibrations. When someone pulls a bow across a violin's string, for example, the string vibrates. That vibration produces sound waves with a high frequency, resulting in a high-pitched sound. To increase the frequencies of the sound waves produced by a violin, the strings can be tightened. A tightened string increases the rate of vibration, which means the sound wave frequency also increases. This makes the instrument produce a tone with a higher pitch. Amplitude The third important characteristic of simple waves is amplitude. Amplitude represents the maximum height or depth of a wave from its rest position. It corresponds with the strength or intensity of a wave. Imagine you toss a small pebble into a still pond. Tiny ripples will move out from where you threw the pebble. These ripples have low-amplitude waves. What if you tossed a big boulder into the same pond? The ripples would be much bigger! These large waves, generated by the energy of throwing the boulder, will have a high amplitude. In a recording studio, computers display the sound waves captured by microphones. If you were to whisper into the microphone, the sound waves would show a low amplitude. If you were to shout into the microphone, the amplitude would be quite high. Imagine you were speaking normally into a microphone; what do you think the amplitude of those sound waves would be like? Waves Surround Us! Waves are fundamental to the way energy is transferred in our world. The next time you listen to your favorite song, take in a sunset view, or watch waves crash on a shore, remember all the ways in which waves are part of your everyday life! ReadWorks.org · © 2023 ReadWorks®, Inc. All rights reserved. ReadWorks Vocabulary Vocabulary atmosphere noun definition: the mass of gases surrounding the earth or any other celestial body. The ozone layer is a part of the Earth's atmosphere. Spanish: atmósfera characteristic noun definition: a salient feature; distinctive trait. Tails that can grasp things are a characteristic of monkeys. Spanish: característica fundamental adjective definition: basic; central; serving as a foundation. You have to know the fundamental rules of grammar to write for the school paper. Spanish: fundamental, escencial, intrínseco transfer transitive verb definition: Spanish: forms: to convey or move from one place or person to another. Her company is transferring her to the Los Angeles office. Please hold while I transfer your call to our other department. I transferred everything from my old wallet to my new one. The disease is transferred from one person to another through sneezing or coughing. transferir, trasladar, pasar transferred, transferring, transfers vibration noun definition: in physics, the rapid motion of a particle or elastic substance around an equilibrium position when its equilibrium has been disturbed, or a similar movement of the particles of an air mass or the like, as in sound transmission. ReadWorks.org · © 2023 ReadWorks®, Inc. All rights reserved. Definitions and sample sentences within definitions are provided by Wordsmyth. © 2023 Wordsmyth. All rights reserved. Name: __________________________________ Date: _______________ 1. Before you start reading... Here are the vocabulary words that will be in this reading. Let's see how well you already know them. Check the box that shows how well you know each word. It's ok if you don't know them yet (this is not graded)! Have heard of it but not sure of its meaning Don't know it Know something about its meaning Know it well atmosphere characteristic fundamental transfer vibration 2. Word Builder Words are made of smaller parts that are called syllables. Some words have one syllable, but many have two or more. Draw lines to show how thesyllables build each vocabulary word. men ter char tion phere trans ac da at fun tic vi tal mos is bra fer 1. 2. 4. 5. 3. 3. After reading and exploring the words through some activities... Do you know these words better? Check the box that shows how well you know each word. It's ok if you don't know them yet (this is not graded)! Don't know it Have heard of it but not sure of its meaning atmosphere characteristic fundamental transfer vibration ReadWorks.org · © 2023 ReadWorks®, Inc. All rights reserved. Vocabulary powered by WordSmyth. © 2023 Wordsmyth. All rights reserved. Know something about its meaning Know it well Waves are Everywhere! - Comprehension Questions Name: ___________________________________ Date: _______________ 1. What is the wavelength of a wave? A. the number of waves that pass one point in one second B. the maximum height or depth of a wave from its rest position C. the distance from one point on a wave to an identical point on the next D. the units used to measure wave frequency 2. What does the text compare clapping along to fast and slow songs at a concert to? A. big and little ripples B. large and small wavelength C. high and low wave amplitude D. high and low wave frequency 3. Read the following sentences from the text. "Amplitude represents the maximum height or depth of a wave from its rest position. It corresponds with the strength or intensity of a wave. Imagine you toss a small pebble into a still pond. Tiny ripples will move out from where you threw the pebble. These ripples have low-amplitude waves. What if you tossed a big boulder into the same pond? The ripples would be much bigger! These large waves, generated by the energy of throwing the boulder, will have a high amplitude. " What conclusion can you draw from this evidence? A. You shouldn't toss rocks of any size into a pond because it can be dangerous. B. The amplitude of a wave will be higher as the strength or intensity increases. C. Scientists use special machines to generate different amplitudes in water. D. Divers take turns jumping into water to measure the height or depth of waves. 4. Based on the text, what would happen to an instrument's sound if someone changed the characteristics of the sound waves it produced? A. It would sound different in some way. B. It would vibrate more quickly. C. It would always produce a higher pitch. D. It would sound like the ocean. ReadWorks.org · © 2023 ReadWorks®, Inc. All rights reserved. Waves are Everywhere! - Comprehension Questions 5. What is the main idea of this text? A. If you visit the beach, you can look at the water and observe the top of a wave, which is called a crest, and the bottom of a wave, which is called a trough. B. During a sunset, light has a longer distance to travel through the atmosphere than other times of the day, so only the longer wavelengths like red and orange reach people's eyes. C. One characteristic of a wave is the frequency, or the number of waves that pass one point in one second, and it is measured in a unit called hertz. D. Waves have three important qualities, wavelength, frequency, and amplitude, and are responsible for the transfer of energy, like light and sound, in our world. ReadWorks.org · © 2023 ReadWorks®, Inc. All rights reserved.
