Review:

Whats the difference between a transverse

and longitudinal wave?
What do waves transfer?
What are the high and low points of a
transverse wave called?
What are the parts of a longitudinal wave
where the particles are spread out and close
together?

Review:

Whats the difference between a transverse

and longitudinal wave?
What do waves transfer?
What are the high and low points of a
transverse wave called?
What are the parts of a longitudinal wave
where the particles are spread out and close
together?

First things first

Which of these show ONE full wave?

One wave has one

crest and one
trough

Wavelength
What is length a measure of?
So what do you think a wave length is?
The distance between two waves
WAVELENGTH

WAVELENGTH

Which has a shorter wavelength?

Measuring Wavelength
Does this tell us the distance between
the two waves?
Why not?

You have to measure the distance

between two comparable points!
(crest to crest, trough to trough, etc.)

Well start with wavelength

In a transverse wave:
But there arent any crests or troughs
in a longitudinal wave!
WAVELENGTH

WAVELENGTH

Weve been looking at transverse

wavesWhat about longitudinal?
We can relate all of the parts of a
transverse wave to a longitudinal one!

So we look at the compressions

and rarefactions!
Compressions =
Crests
Rarefactions =
Troughs
Now we can find
the wavelength
Compression to
compression
Rarefaction to
rarefaction

On to amplitude
The amplitude of a wave is related to its
height
The higher the amplitude, the more
energy
The maximum distance a waves medium
travels from its rest position

On to amplitude
In a transverse wave:
We now know that compressions are
rarefactions are like the crests and
troughs, but its hard to find a
longitudinal waves resting point.

Amplitude
The distance between the crest or
trough and the waves resting position.
Wheres the crest? Trough?

Trough

Amplitude

Amplitude

Crest

Resting
Position

Which has a larger amplitude?

What does amplitude tell us

about a wave?
Which of these waves would cause more
damage if it hit the shore?
Which has the larger amplitude?
Which wave has more energy?
THATS
AMPLITUDE!

Amplitude

For the amplitude

of a longitudinal
wave, we look at
how compressed or
how rarefied the
spring or particles
are.
The more
compressed or
rarefied it is, the
higher the
amplitude and vice
versa.

Frequency
If your friend comes over to your house
frequently, how often do they come
over?
Can you take a guess as to what the
frequency of a wave is?
The frequency of a wave tells us the
number of waves that are produced in a
certain amount of time.

We need to know how many waves

are being produced in 10 seconds.
How can you find the frequency of this
wave?
Step 1: pick a point on the wave.
Step 2: count the waves that pass that
point in a certain amount of time.

Which has a higher frequency?

What is the unit for frequency?

Frequency is measured in Hertz (Hz).
If one full wave passes a point every
second, it has a frequency of 1 Hz.
1 wave per second (1 wave/1 sec.)

What is the frequency if three waves

pass a point every second?
3 Hz. (3 waves/1 second)

What is the frequency if six waves pass

a point every three seconds?
2 Hz. (6 waves/3 seconds)

Wave Speed
There are two ways to calculate wave
speed.
Option 1: time how long a wave takes to get
from point A to point B.

 Option 2: Use the following formula

Wave speed = wavelength x frequency

Wavelength = 2 meters

Frequency =
4 Hz.

(4 waves pass every second)

Wave Speed =
8 meters/second

 Wave speed is affected by several

factors
The type of wave
Example: electromagnetic waves always travel at
the same speed in a vacuum (300,000 km/s the
speed of light)

The medium the wave is moving through

If you start two waves in a pan, one with water
and one with corn syrup, which will reach the
other side of the pan first?
Another example is popping your knuckles
underwater as opposed to above water.