Download Topic 4 Waves - MrSimonPorter

Topic 4 Waves
These definitions you have to learn off by heart. Test coming soon!!
Displacement of a wave is the distance any point on a wave has moved from its undisturbed (mean) position.
Amplitude is the maximum displacement from the mean position.
Period is the time taken for one complete oscillation (time for one complete wave to pass a point).
Frequency is the number of oscillations that take place per unit time.
Wavelength is the shortest distance along a wave between two points that are in phase.
Phase difference is the time difference or phase angle by which one wave leads or lags another.
Wave speed is the speed at which wavefronts pass a stationary observer.
Intensity - The average amount of energy transported by a wave in the direction of wave propagation, per unit
area per unit time.
First law of football states that Nottingham is the home of good football and that Brian Clough is a God.
Principle of superposition – when two or more waves meet, the resultant displacement is the sum of the
individual displacements.
Simple harmonic motion - periodic motion in which the restoring force is proportional to the
displacement
Damping - the loss of energy with each cycle of a simple harmonic oscillator
Natural frequency of vibration - the natural frequency of a system in the absence of external
influences.
Forced oscillations – oscillations forced on a system by external influences
Resonance - the increase in amplitude of oscillation of an electric or mechanical system exposed to a periodic
force whose frequency is equal or very close to the natural undamped frequency of the system.
Longitudinal wave – the oscillations are parallel to the direction of energy transfer
Transverse wave – the oscillations are perpendicular to the direction of energy transfer.
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Higher only
The Raleigh Criterion states that two points or lines are just resolved if the peak of the point spread function
lies on the first trough of the other point spread function.
Brewster’s law states that for a certain angle of incidence ip, monochromatic light is 100% polorised on
reflection. This angle is given by tanip = n2/n1
Optical rotation or optical
materials.
activity is the rotation of linearly polarized light as it travels through certain
Polarised light is light in which the electric field vector vibrates in one plane only.
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