Content Focus

Here we will explore waves in many forms and applications, including mechanical waves, sound waves, light acting as waves and rays. Next, we will expand our thinking into heat, especially kinetic energy, thermal equilibrium, specific heat, energy transfer, latent heat and thermal conductivity.

"Wave motion involves the transfer of energy without the transfer of matter. By exploring the behaviour of wave motion and examining the characteristics of wavelength, frequency, period, velocity and amplitude, students further their understanding of the properties of waves. They are then able to demonstrate how waves can be reflected, refracted, diffracted and superposed (interfered) and to develop an understanding that not all waves require a medium for their propagation. Students examine mechanical waves and electromagnetic waves, including their similarities and differences.

"Students also examine energy and its transfer, in the form of heat, from one place to another. Thermodynamics is the study of the relationship between energy, work, temperature and matter. Understanding this relationship allows students to appreciate particle motion within objects. Students have the opportunity to examine how hot objects lose energy in three ways: first, by conduction, and, second, by convection – which both involve the motion of particles; and, third, the emission of electromagnetic radiation. An understanding of thermodynamics is a pathway to understanding related concepts in many fields involving Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)."

NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) (2017), Physics Stage 6 Syllabus, p. 41.

Biblical Perspective

The Lord is in charge of the waves, as we read, "The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, than the mighty waves of the sea" and "He calms the storm, so that its waves are still." (Psalm 93:4; 107:29, NKJV). Waves carry energy and information. The very first thing that is recorded in the Bible about God is the fact that he spoke, "Then God said, 'Let there be light'; and there was light." (Genesis 1:3). Both the act and the result involve waves: the spoken word requires sound waves; light involves electromagnetic waves.

For Physics to be possible there must be a basic uniformity to nature: the same laws should apply over extended periods of time. Otherwise no predictions are possible. Christianity supplies a basis for such observed regularity: God, in His covenant with Noah after the Flood (Genesis 9), promised the regular flow of times and seasons, until the time comes for a new heaven and a new earth. God has not just started off the universe and then left it to fend for itself; rather, He is continuously upholding His creation.

For a Biblical Perspective of Electricity and Magnetism, click here.

Source: http://www.reformation.edu/scripture-science-byl/pages/02-perspective-on-physics.htm

Inquiry questions

Wave Properties

What are the properties of all waves and wave motion?

Wave Behaviour

How do waves behave?

Sound Waves

What evidence suggests that sound is a mechanical wave?

Ray Model of Light

What properties can be demonstrated when using the ray model of light?

Thermodynamics

How are temperature, thermal energy and particle motion related?