Characteristics of sound waves, light waves and

their interaction with living things.

Sound Waves: There are five main characteristics of sound waves:
wavelength, amplitude, frequency, time period, and velocity. The
wavelength of a sound wave indicates the distance that wave travels before
it repeats itself. The wavelength itself is a longitudinal wave that shows the
compressions and rarefactions of the sound wave. The amplitude of a
wave defines the maximum displacement of the particles disturbed by the
sound wave as it passes through a medium. A large amplitude indicates a
large sound wave. The frequency of a sound wave indicates the number of
sound waves produced each second. Low-frequency sounds produce
sound waves less often than high-frequency sounds. The time period of a
sound wave is the amount of time required to create a complete wave
cycle. Each vibration from the sound source produces a wave’s worth of
sound. Each complete wave cycle begins with a trough and ends at the
start of the next trough. Lastly, the velocity of a sound wave tells us how
fast the wave is moving and is expressed as meters per second.
Three ways that waves may interact with matter are reflection, refraction,
and diffraction. Reflection occurs when waves bounce back from a surface
that they cannot pass through. Refraction occurs when waves bend as they
enter a new medium at an angle and start traveling at a different speed.

Light Waves:Like ocean waves, light waves have crests and troughs.
The distance between one crest and the next, which is the same as the
distance between one trough and the next, is called the wavelength. The
frequency of a wave is the number of crests (or troughs) that pass a point
in one second.
When a light wave encounters an object, they are either transmitted,
reflected, absorbed, refracted, polarized, diffracted, or scattered depending
on the composition of the object and the wavelength of the light.