3 Waves

3.1 General properties of waves

https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/wave-on-a-string/latest/wave-on-a-string_all.html
Wave:

A wave is a disturbance that transfers energy from one place to

another.
It does not transfer matter during the energy transfer.
Wave motion:

Wave motion is made up of periodic

motion or motion repeated at regular
intervals.
Example: The swinging motion of a
pendulum bob
Wave motion as illustrated by vibrations in ropes:
Wave motion as illustrated by vibrations in springs:
Wave motion as illustrated by experiments using water waves:

Ripple Tank
 Wavefront:

It is an imaginary line on a wave that

joins all points which are inphase (having
same phase).
● Distance between two consecutive
wavefronts is the wavelength.
● Direction of wave propagation is
always perpendicular to the
wavefront.
 Wavelength:

It is the distance between two

successive crests or troughs.

It will be denoted by λ (lambda)

Unit: m

A crest is the highest point.

A trough is the lowest point.

Frequency:

Frequency is the number of wavelengths that pass a point per unit

time.
It will be denoted by ‘f’
Unit: 1/s or Hz
Period:

It is the time taken to produce one complete wave.

It will be denoted by ‘T’

Unit: s
Example: N number of waves produced in time t.
frequency , f = N/t
Period, T = t/N
So, f = 1/T
Amplitude:

It is the maximum distance of a

point from the mean position
or from its rest position.
Unit: m
Wave speed:

It is the distance travelled by a wave per unit time.

Unit: m/s
wave speed = frequency × wavelength
v=fλ
Question:
Question:
Question:
 Transverse wave:

The direction of vibration is at right angles to the direction of the energy

transfer.
Examples:
● Electromagnetic radiation,
● Waves on the surface of water, and
● Seismic S-waves (secondary)
Longitudinal wave:

The direction of vibration is parallel to the direction of the energy

transfer.
Examples:
● Sound waves and
● Seismic P-waves (primary)
Reflection of waves at a plane surface:
Reflection of waves at a plane surface:

● Water waves hit the barrier at an angle i and get reflected at

an angle r.
● Both angles are equal.
● The distance between two adjacent wavefronts is equivalent
to the wavelength.
● In reflection, the wavelength does not change.
Refraction of waves due to a change of speed:
Refraction of waves due to a change of speed:

● Refraction is the change in direction of a wave as it passes from one

medium to another. Refraction is caused by the wave's change of
speed.
● When water waves travelling from deep water to the shallow water,
wave speed decreases, wavelength decreases, as a result wavefronts
in the shallow water are closer together than in the deep water.
● If the angle i is zero, angle r will also be zero, i.e., no refraction occurs.
Question:
Diffraction of waves through a gap or an edge:
Diffraction of waves through a gap or an edge:

● Wavefronts spread out after passing a gap or an edge. This is

called diffraction.
● The wavelength of the waves before and after entering the gaps
does not change.
● When the wavelength is longer than the gap size, the waves
spread out more. When the wavelength is shorter than the gap
size, the waves spread out less.
Diffraction of waves through a gap or an edge:

The longer the wavelength, the greater the curvature effect.

Question:
Use of a ripple tank to show reflection at a plane
surface:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGuUKRmytLw&t=33s
Use of a ripple tank to show refraction due to a
change in speed caused by a change in depth:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wfEczDapHA&t=195s
Use of a ripple tank to show diffraction due to a gap
or an edge

https://youtu.be/BH0NfVUTWG4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h6gx4bS944
3.2 Light
3.2.1 Reflection of light
Reflection:

It is the rebounding of light at a surface.

Normal:
Normal is the imaginary line perpendicular to the reflecting
surface at the point of incidence.
Angle of incidence:

It is the angle between the incident ray and the normal.

Angle of reflection:

It is the angle between the reflected ray and the normal.

Law of reflection:
The angle of incidence is
equal to the angle of
reflection.
Describe an experiment to illustrate the law of reflection:
Describe an experiment to find the position and characteristics
of an optical image formed by a plane mirror (same size, same
distance from mirror as object and virtual):
Question:
Construction of image in a plane mirror:
Characteristics of a plane mirror image:
Real Image: Real image can be projected on a screen.
Virtual Image: Virtual image can not be projected on a
screen.
3.2.2 Refraction of light
Refraction of light:

When light travels from one medium to another, it

undergoes a change in speed at the boundary of the two
optical media. The change is speed causes light to bend (i.e.
change its direction). This called refraction.
Normal:

It is imaginary line perpendicular to the refracting surface at

the point of incidence.
Angle of incidence:

It is angle between incident ray and normal.

Angle of refraction:

It is angle between refracted ray and normal.

Law of refraction:
Question:
Describe an experiment to show refraction of light by
transparent blocks of different shapes:
Critical angle and Total internal reflection:
Critical angle:

It is the angle of incidence in the denser medium for which

refracted ray is along the surface.
It will be denoted by C
Total internal reflection:
Describe experiments to show internal reflection and total
internal reflection:
Question:
Optical fibres:
3.2.3 Thin lenses
Different types of light rays:
The action of thin converging and thin diverging lenses
on a parallel beam of light:
Focal length, principal axis and principal focus (focal point):
Draw ray diagrams to illustrate the formation of real and virtual images of an
object by a converging lens and know that a real image is formed by converging
rays and a virtual image is formed by diverging rays:
Linear magnification:

It is the ratio of image length to object length.

The use of a single lens as a magnifying glass:
Normal eye:
Short-sighted eye:
Long-sighted eye:
3.2.4 Dispersion of light
Dispersion of light:
3.3 Electromagnetic spectrum
The main regions of the electromagnetic spectrum:
Some uses of electromagnetic radiation:
● X-rays are used in killing
cancerous cells.
● X-rays are used in engineering
applications such as detecting
cracks in metal
● Gamma rays are used in
detecting and killing cancerous
cells.
● Gamma rays are used in
engineering applications such as
detecting cracks in metal
The damage caused by electromagnetic radiation:
3.4 Sound
The production of sound

Sound is produced by vibrating sources.

A guitar has a string, a drum has a stretched skin and the
human voice has vocal cords.
The longitudinal nature of sound waves:
The approximate range of frequencies audible to
humans:
Sound waves cannot travel in a vacuum and describe an
experiment to demonstrate this:
Echo:

An echo is a reflection of sound waves.

Simple experiments to show the reflection of sound waves:
An experiment to determine the speed of sound:
● The speed of sound in air is approximately
330–350 m / s.
● Sound travels faster in solids than in liquids
and faster in liquids than in gases.
Ultrasound:

A sound with a frequency higher than 20 kHz.

 Uses of ultrasound

Cleaning:
Prenatal and other medical scanning:
Sonar:

The full form of SONAR is Sound Navigation and Ranging.