Waves Physics Mr. Berman Greece 2005, North Aegean Sea
Waves and their characteristics Velocity of a wave Types of waves
Oscillation Object moves back and forth about an equilibrium position.
Pulse: A single disturbance travelling through a medium. http://www.dacc.edu/~qchen/P102/labs/LAB5.HTM
Wave Train (Travelling Wave or simply wave): A series of pulses at regular intervals. http://micromachine.stanford.edu/~hopcroft/Research/resonator_images/sin_mov1.gif
Wave on a String (Applet) http://phet.colorado.edu/sims/wave-on-a-string/wave-on-a-string_en.html
Graph of Displacement vs Time
Displacement vs Distance Traveled
Speed of a Wave, v v= d/t v = l/T v =lf
Types of Waves Transverse Longitudinal
Transverse (ex: waves along a string, electromagnetic waves). The particles vibrate perpendicular to the direction of the wave's propagation (ex: waves along a string, electromagnetic waves).
Example: S Earthquake Wave http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~braile/edumod/waves/Swave_files/image001.gif
Longitudinal Waves The particle displacement is parallel to the direction of wave propagation (ex: sound)
Torsional Waves Video link on Web : Collapse of Takoma Narrows Bridge, Washington State, 1940 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shX4Q0QV8VI
Elliptical Waves Result when longitudinal and transverse waves are superpositioned. (ex: surface water waves)
Ocean Wave
Ocean Wave http://www.pa.uky.edu/~crawford/phy361_sp10/home.html
Note Waves transfer of energy from one point to another. Waves do not transfer matter.
Types of Waves Mechanical Waves Electromagnetic Waves
Mechanical Waves require a medium. Examples: Water waves( Tsunami) Sound waves (v= 340 m/sec in air but varies for different media) Earthquake waves
Electromagnetic Waves do not require a medium and can travel through the empty space (vacuum). Example: Light from the sun travels through space and reaches us. Note: All EM waves have a speed through vacuum of 3 x 108 m/sec.
Problem 1 What is the distance a sound wave in air traveled in 2 sec? Answer: 680m/s
Problem 2 What is the frequency of a light wave of wave length 550x 10-9 m? Answer: 5.5 x 10 14 Hz
Problem 3 A SONAR (Sound Navigation and Ranging) sends a signal to the bottom of the ocean. The speed of sound in water is 1435 m/s. If the signal echo returned in 0.4 sec, how deep was the water? Answer: 287m