WAVES Waves transfer energy from one place to another.

For example, sound waves transfer energy from the mouth of a person to the ears of another. Light and sound travel by means of waves. Although we do not see these waves of light and of sound, yet all of us are familiar with wave motion. Dont we see waves at sea? But we do not mean waves when the sea is rough. Here we mean only small water waves. Imagine that you are in the sea and a water wave comes along. As the wave passes you feel yourself being lifted up by the wave and then you feel yourself going down. And then you again feel yourself lifted up and down again. And so on. This is because some of the water is being lifted up and some of the water is being pushed down. This motion (or displacement) of the water can be represented by the graph below:

When the water is lifted up, its motion (or displacement) is plotted on the y-axis as positive on the graph. When the water is pushed down, its motion (or displacement) is plotted on the y-axis as negative on the graph. The shape of the wave continues going up and down along to the RHS of the graph. That is a wave consists of a repeated pattern. This means that a wave consists of repeated cycles. The distance of one cycle is called the WAVELENGTH and the maximum displacement is called the AMPLITUDE as shown in the above diagram. The number of cycles per second is called the FREQUENCY which is measured in Hertz (Hz). The time it takes to do one cycle is called the PERIOD which is measured in seconds (s).

Two important formulae are: frequency = 1/periodic time f = 1/T or period time = 1/frequency or T = 1/f

wave speed = frequency x wavelength v=f

The second formula is given in the SEC exam

Examples using these equations:

A loudspeaker reproduces a note of frequency 320Hz. It travels through the air with a speed of 340ms-1. a) What is the wavelength in air? v = f
v/f = 340ms-1 / 320Hz = 1.06m = b) The sound passes through water where its wavelength is 4.5m. Calculate the speed of sound in water v = f v = 320Hz x 4.5m v = 1,440ms-1

c) The Sears Tower in Chicago sways back and forth in the wind with a frequency of about 0.12 Hz. What is the period of vibration? Period = 1/frequency = 1 / 0.12 = 8.3s

Types of Wave: Transverse or Longitudinal?

There are two basic types of wave. These are: a) Transverse In a transverse wave the oscillation/vibration is perpendicular to the direction of travel.

An example of transverse waves are electromagnetic waves, such as radio waves.

For example , in the diagram below, the rope is going up and down in a direction perpendicular to the direction in which the wave is going.

b) Longitudinal Wave In a longitudinal wave the oscillations/vibrations occur parallel, i.e. along the line of travel.

Look carefully at the word longitudinal. That part of the word, long, should make you remember that in a longitudinal wave the vibration is along the direction of the wave. THIS METHOD OF STUDYI HELPS YOU TO REMEMBER EASIER AND BETTER THE MEANING OF THE WORDS.

An example of longitudinal waves are sound waves. The diagram below shows the position of the molecules of air as a wave of sound is passing through.

Sound travels through air because some of the air molecules get closer to each other (compression) and some get far apart from each other.

Once again, LOOK AT THE WORD CAREFULLY! The word rarefaction contains the word rare. That is there are fewer molecules. Molecules get rare. This way you remember the meaning of the word rarefaction.

Problem. A longitudinal wave that has a frequency of 20.0 Hz travels along a

coil spring. If the distance between successive compressions is 0.60 m, what is the speed of the wave?
The distance between successive compressions is the wavelength, . Therefore v =f
v = 20.0 x 0.60 v = 12m/s.

If you want to see a short video showing a longitudinal wave, go to the following website on the internet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=aguCWnbRETU

WAVES ARE REFLECTED, REFRACTED AND DIFFRACTED We already know that light is reflected and refracted. All kind of waves can be reflected and refracted. This can be seen with water waves in a ripple tank.

Problem: Five waves are generated every 0.1 s in a tank of water. What is

the speed of propagation of the wave if the wavelength of the surface wave is 1.20 cm? We are going to use v = f, remember v is the velocity of the waves f is the frequency, i.e. the number of waves per second

 is the wavelength. 5 waves in 0.1s ? waves in 1s then,5 x 1 / 0.1 = 50, hence the frequency = 50Hz Therefore v = f, v= 50 x 1.20 v = 60 cm/s
The arrow gives the direction of the waves. The parallel lines are called WAVEFRONTS. The distance between two successive parallel lines is the wavelength.

REFRACTION of light means that light changes direction when it goes from glass to air. That is light is changing the medium. Even water waves show refraction. Water waves get refracted when the waves go from deep to shallow water.

Waves show also DIFFRACTION. Diffraction of waves means the spreading of waves when waves go through a very small opening.

On the RHS the opening is small and so the waves spread almost in a semicircle. But on the LHS, the waves continue almost as parallel lines as before. They spread only a little. This is because the opening is not small.

This photo shows diffraction of waves at the sea. Note the small opening through which the waves are passing.

this is a diagram of the above photo.

Now, Questions from the SEC exam