Chapter 14 Vocabulary Terms
Terms
undefined, object
copy deck
- What is a wave?
- A wave is rhythmic distburance that carries energy through matter or space
- What is a wave pulse?
- Single bump or disburance that travles through a medium
- Transverse waves
- A wave that vibrates perpendicular to the direction of wave motion
- Longitudinal wave
- Disturbance is in the same direction, or parallel, to the direction of wave motion (ex: liquids and gases)
- Surface waves
- waves that have characteristics of transverse and longitudinal waves
- Frequency
- number of complete oscillations it makes each second
- Incident wave
- wave that strikes the boundary
- reflected wave
- returning wave
- principle of superposition
- two or more waves can combine to form a new wave
- interference
- result of superposition of two or more waves
- destructive interference
- superposition of waves with equal but opposite amplitudes
- node
- when the pulses meet and are in the same location, and the displacement is zero
- constructive interference
- wave displacements are in the same direction, result is a wave that has an amplitude larger interference of two equal pulses
- antinode
- two pulses pass through each other without changing their shapes or sizes, point of largest amplitude
- continuous waves
- a regularly repeating sequence of wave pulses
- standing waves
- a wave with stationary nodes and antinodes
- law of reflection
- angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection
- refraction
- change in the direction of waves at the boundary between two different media
- diffraction
- spreading of waves around the edge of a barrier, occurs whe waves meet a small obstacle