By the end of this unit, a successful student will be able to:
- Sketch or identify graphs that represent traveling waves and determine the amplitude, wavelength, and frequency of a wave from such a graph (APIVA1a)
- Mathematically describe traveling waves and wave propogation including:
- the relationship between wavelength, frequency, and wave speed (APIVA1b)
- how traveling wave functions relate to the quantity (x - vt)
- how the intensity of a wave is proportional to the square of its amplitude and how the intensity of a spherical wave decreases with distance (APIVA2b)
- how wave frequency of a string relates to its tension and mass (APIVA1e)
- how sound waves speeds relate to density and temperature of the medium (APIVA13)
- Describe how waves may reflect, refract and transmit at boundaries (APIVA1d)
- Qualitatively describe the differences between transverse and longitudinal waves (APIVA2a)
- Explain qualitatively why transverse waves an exhibit polarization (APIVA2a)
- Qualitatively and quantitatively use the principle of superposition to describe constructive and destructive interference of waves (APIVA4)
- Describe a standing wave in terms of superposition (APIVA4)
- define the nodes and antinodes of a standing wave and relate them to the number of wavelengths within a standing wave (APIVA3a)
- determine the fundamental frequency and nth harmonics of strings, and closed and opened pipes (APIVA3a, APIVA3b)
- Understand qualitatively the Doppler effect for sound in order to explain why there is a frequency shift in both the moving source and moving observer case (APIVA1c)
- Determine the shift in frequency associated with the motion of a source or observer as described in the Doppler effect.
All assignments are due on the date listed. That is not the date they are assigned.
Due Date Day Assignment
5/11 Wed Read Chapter 20.3, Chapter 21.
5/13 Fri Do: Chapter 20: 10, 12, 14
Do: Chapter 21: 3, 6, 19, 21, 23, 25, 28
5/16 Mon Read Chapter 22
5/19 Wed Do: Chapter 22: 1, 4, 5, 9, 10, 15, 18, 20, 24, 26
Do: Lab: Interference
5/20 Thu Read: Chapter 23
5/23 Mon Do: Chapter 23: 9, 11, 14, 16, 20, 24, 27, 35, 37, 53, 79
5/25 Wed Test/Final Exam: Waves
- Prentice Hall's web page on Giancoli Chapter 11
- Prentice Hall's web page on Giancoli Chapter 12
- Halliday, Resnick and Walker's page on Chapter 17, Waves I (Calculus based)
- Halliday, Resnick and Walker's page on Chapter 18, Waves II (Calculus based)
- Prentice Hall's web page on Giancoli Chapter 24
- Halliday, Resnick and Walker's page on Chapter 36, Optical Interference (Calculus based)
- Halliday, Resnick and Walker's page on Chapter 37, Optical Diffraction (Calculus based)
- Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy blog had a nifty picture demonstrating light waves moving faster than sound waves that involves a burning jet and a missle explodingNew! 9/3/10
- Magius modified a Super Mario World level for a lesson on mechanical waves in Super Mario Physics. This site is blocked from GDRSD computers, probably due to dating service advertisements. New! 5/18/07
- Thomas Young in 1801 demonstrated that light behaves as a wave in his famous Double-Slit interference experiment. In that experiment, Young placed a a source of light behind a pinhole, and alowed that light to enter two slits or pinholes in a barrier beyond. Those slits acted as new sources of light. Because light acts as a wave, when a crest from one source overlaps a crest from the other, the light there adds together and is brighter. Similarly, when a trough overlaps a trough, the light adds together and is brighter. But when a trough from one source overlaps a crest from the other, the two waves cancel each other out and the region is dimmer. This results in an alternating bright-dark pattern of interference fringes on any screen placed beyond the two slits. The spacing of the fringes is dependent on the wavelength of the light and the the spacing of the slits. This Young's Double Slit Applet allows you to examine the results of such an experiment while varying all of the parameters. No math shown, although the parameter dimensions are listed. Young's experiment caused the physics community to consider light as waves rather than as Newton's corpuscular particles - until the dawn of quantum mechanics when we realized that light behaves as both a wave and a particle. At that time it was also realized that electrons and other particles could behave like waves when they went through their own Double-slit interference experiments.
- Joseph Alward collects a number of nice diagrams showing Light Interference. Uses algebra and trigonometry.