10.4. Waves and Wave Properties http://www.ck12.org
10.4 Waves and Wave Properties
Objectives
The student will:
- Be able to distinguish between types of waves.
- Be able to recognize the behavior of waves.
Vocabulary
- diffraction:The bending and stretching of waves.
- longitudinal wave: Consists of vibrations that are parallel to the wave direction.
- reflection:The process of light bouncing off boundaries between two media.
- refraction:The process of light bending.
- transverse wave: Consists of vibrations that are perpendicular to the wave direction.
Introduction
Energy is an abstract concept, defined as the ability to do work (force times distance), as opposed to more directly
measured phenomena such as displacement, velocity, acceleration, force, and mass. Often, work is being done
through wave motion. It is not uncommon to hear about the devastation brought about by a tsunami. Waves transports
energy. You may have heard of the devastating effects at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant complex caused
by the Tohoku earthquake and the resulting tsunami.Figure10.12 andFigure10.13 show some of the remarkable
effects of the energy transported by waves.
Energy can also be transported by waves during an earthquake. The Richter Scale (invented in 1935 by Charles
Richter and Beno Gutenberg) is used to measure the energy released during an earthquake. The waves that carry
the energy away from the center of an earthquake are called seismic waves. Seismic waves contain several different
kinds of waves. Two in particular are P-waves and S-waves. The links below demonstrate how P-waves and S-waves
travel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl4FvHKzAlU
http://www.tjhsst.edu/~jlafever/wanimate/Wave_Properties2.html