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Name: _______________________________ Summer Physics

Ms. Alice Notes #4
Chapter 8: Energy Sources and The Environment (pgs. 234-261)
Fossil Fuels
Coal, _________________ gas, and petroleum (crude oil) are fossil fuels. They are called such
because they form from the remains of ancient plants and animals that were buried and altered over
__________________ of years.
- Fossil fuels are a nonrenewable resource, which are resources that cannot be replaced by
natural processes as quickly as they are used.

Petroleum is a ___________________ liquid and is a mixture of thousands of chemical

compounds. Most of these compounds are _______________________, which means that their
molecules are made of carbon and hydrogen atoms.
- The different chemical compounds in petroleum can be __________________ through a
process called fractional distillation.

The chemical processes that produced ___________________ as ancient organisms decayed also
produced natural gas.
- Natural gas is composed of mostly _________________, but it also contains other gaseous
hydrocarbons, such as propane and butane.

Coal is a solid fossil fuel that can be found in mines, formed when swampy plant material decayed
and compacted into _______________, which underwent millions of years of heat and pressure.
- Also a mixture of hydrocarbons and other compounds, but contains more
_____________________, so coal releases more pollutants when burned.

Power Plant Efficiency

In a fossil fuel-burning power plant, not all of the chemical potential energy stored in fuel is
converted into ___________________ energy.
- The overall efficiency of such a power plant is roughly ________ percent.
- The remaining 65 percent is converted into ___________________ energy, which is often
released into the environment.
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Nuclear Energy
Fusion occurs when atomic nuclei __________________ at very high temperatures.
- This is what powers the _________. It is not practical on Earth.
Fission is the process in which energy is released when the __________________ of an atom
________________ apart.
- This is practical on Earth. There are hundreds of power plants in the world that use fission.
A small amount of _______________ is transformed into a tremendous amount of thermal energy
in each of these processes.

Pros and Cons of Nuclear Power

Pros:
- Doesn’t produce air ____________________.
- Doesn’t release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Cons:
- Nuclear power plants are extremely __________________ and take a long time to build.
- Produces nuclear _________________ that can be harmful to the environment.

Renewable Resources
A renewable resource is an energy source that is replaced by natural processes
__________________ than humans can consume the resource.

Solar Energy:
- A photovoltaic cell converts _________________ energy into electrical energy.
Also called a solar cell.
Hydroelectricity:
- Hydroelectricity is electric current produced from the energy of moving water
( ____________________ energy).
Wind Energy:
- ___________________ can convert wind energy into electrical energy.
- As the wind blows, it spins a propeller connected to an electric _____________________.
Geothermal Energy:
- Geothermal energy is the thermal energy that is contained in and around ______________,
which is molten rock beneath Earth’s surface.
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Chapter 9: Introduction to Waves (pgs. 274-295)
Waves
A wave is a repeating _________________ that transfers energy through matter or space.

Waves do not carry _________________ with them. The matter it propagates through will end up
in the same place it started, but energy will travel along the wave.
All waves are produced by something that _________________.

Mechanical Waves
A medium is matter through which a wave travels. It can be a solid, a liquid, a gas, or a
____________________ of these.
- Not all waves need a medium. Light waves can travel through a _________________.
Mechanical waves, such as ______________ waves, are waves that can travel only through matter.
- These can be either transverse or longitudinal waves.
In a transverse wave, particles in the medium move back and forth at _______________ angles to
the direction that the wave travels.

In a longitudinal wave, matter in the medium moves back and forth _______________ the same
direction that the wave travels.

Parts of a Wave
Crests are the ______________ points of a transverse wave.
Troughs are the ______________ points of a transverse wave.
In the middle of these points is the rest position.
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A compression is the _______________ dense region of a longitudinal wave.
A rarefaction is the _______________ dense region of a longitudinal wave.

Wavelength, Frequency, and Period

Wavelength is the ___________________ between one point on a wave and the nearest point just
like it. Measured in m, symbolized by λ.
- Transverse: distance between crests, distance between troughs, etc.
- Longitudinal: distance from the ___________________ of one compression to the next,
distance from the middle of one rarefaction to the next, etc.
The frequency of a wave is the __________________ of wavelengths that pass a fixed point each
second. It is measured in Hz (s-1), symbolized by f.
The period of a wave is the _________________ it takes one wavelength to pass a point. It is
measured in s, symbolized by T.

As frequency increases, period decreases (and vice versa).

● Frequency is, in fact, the ________________ of period.
As frequency ____________________, wavelength decreases (and vice versa).
● If you double the frequency of a wave, you are also halving the wavelength.

Wave Speed
Waves travel at different speeds, depending on the _________________ through which it is
traveling.
- Sound waves usually travel __________________ in liquids and solids than in gases.
- Light waves travel more slowly in liquids and solids than in gases or in a vacuum.
Speed (m/s) = frequency (Hz) × wavelength (m)
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Amplitude
Amplitude is a measure of the size of the ______________________ from a wave.
The amplitude of a transverse wave is half the ___________________ distance between the crests
and the troughs.

The amplitude of a longitudinal wave is related to how __________________ the medium is at the
compressions.

Reflection
Reflection occurs when a wave strikes an object and __________________ off it.
- All types of waves can be reflected.

The Law of Reflection:

the angle of ____________________ (i)
is equal to the angle of reflection (r).

Refraction
Refraction is the ____________________ of a wave caused by a change in its speed as it travels
from one medium to another.
- The greater the change in speed, the
_______________ the wave bends.
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Diffraction
Diffraction is the bending of a wave _________________ an object.
- Waves can also bend when they pass through a narrow __________________.
- The amount of diffraction depends on how large the obstacle/opening is compared to the
_____________________.

Interference
Interference is the process of two or more waves _______________________ and combining to
form a new wave.
- This new wave only exists while the two original waves ___________________ to overlap.
The interference of waves is what causes ____________________.

In constructive interference, the crests/compressions of two or more waves arrive at the same
place at the same time and overlap, and the waves _____________ together.
- The amplitude of the new wave is the __________ of the amplitudes of the original waves.
- Waves undergoing constructive interference are said to be in _________________.

In destructive interference, the crests/compressions of one wave meet the troughs/rarefactions of

another wave, and the waves _____________________ from each other as they overlap.
- The amplitude of the new wave is the ______________________ between the amplitudes
of the waves that overlapped.
- Waves undergoing destructive interference are said to be ____________ of phase.
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Standing Waves
A standing wave is a special type of wave pattern that forms when waves equal in wavelength and
amplitude but traveling in opposite directions ______________________ interfere with each other.

Standing waves have nodes, which are locations where the interfering waves always
__________________. Nodes stay in the same place along the wave.

The wave pattern __________________ between the nodes.

Resonance
Resonance is the process by which an object is made to vibrate by _________________ energy at
its _________________ frequencies.
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Chapter 10: Sound
Sound Waves
Sound waves are ________________________ waves. They can travel through any type of matter,
but cannot travel through a vacuum.
The speed of a sound wave through a medium depends on a few factors:
- Phase/state
- Fastest through solids, slower through liquids, slowest through gases
- Temperature
- Faster through _________________ temperature fluids
- Density
- Faster through _________________ media
- Elasticity: tendency of an object to ________________ to its original state when it is deformed
- Faster through elastic objects

Intensity
Intensity is the amount of _________________ that passes through a certain area in a specific
amount of time.

________________ intensity sound waves can be heard from farther away.

Intensity ___________________ with distance for two reasons:
- The energy carried by the sound wave _________________ out as the sound wave spreads out.
- As the sound wave travels farther, more of its energy is _____________________ into other
forms.

Loudness
Loudness is the human _______________________ of sound volume and primarily depends on
sound intensity.
- When high intensity sound waves reach your ear, they cause your __________________ to
move back and forth a greater distance.
A decibel (dB) is a unit of sound intensity.
- Every increase in 10 dB on the decibel scale represents a _________________ increase in
intensity.
- An 80-dB sound is _________ times more intense than a 20-dB sound.
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Pitch
Pitch is how _____________ or ____________ a sound seems to be.

A sound wave with higher frequency causes faster vibrations in your ear, which your brain
interprets as a _________________ pitch. Slower vibrations are interpreted as a lower pitch.

The Doppler Effect

The Doppler effect is the change in wave ___________________ due to a wave source moving
relative to an observer, or an observer moving relative to a wave source.

If the observer and the wave source are moving __________________ together, the frequency/pitch
of the sound gets higher.
If they’re moving away from each other, the frequency/pitch of the sound gets ________________.

Music
Music is any collection of sounds that are deliberately used in a regular __________________.

Every object has a particular set of ______________________ at which it vibrates.

Musical instruments use the natural frequencies of various objects, such as strings, to control
_________________.

The sound produced by instruments is amplified by ____________________.

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Sound quality describes the differences between sounds of the ________________ pitch and
loudness. This results from overtones:
- An overtone is a vibration whose frequency is a _________________ of the fundamental
frequency.

Uses of Sound
Acoustics is the study of sound.

Echolocation is the process of ___________________ objects by emitting sounds and then

interpreting the sound waves that are reflected from those objects.

Sonar is a system that uses the __________________ of underwater sound waves to detect objects.

Ultrasound is sound with frequency above 20,000 Hz and cannot be heard by humans. It is often
used in medical __________________.