Physics Knowledge

Container.
By: Jaskaran.
Wave Characteristics and Terminology.
Terminology and Characteristics of a
wave.

Period: The time it takes to complete

one cycle. (SI units: seconds s).

Frequency: The number of cycles per

unit time (SI units: seconds-1 or Hz)

Amplitude: The maximum displacement

from the equilibrium position/axis of
curve. (SI unit: Meters m).

Wavelength: THe distance between

one crest to the next. Or 2 points in the
same state of motion.
Waves Characteristic and
Terminology.
Things to remember:

1) The speed of a wave depends on the medium it

travels through, not on the frequency or the
wavelength.
2) The frequency of the wave is determined by the
source producing the wave-it does not depend
on the medium it is traveling through.

The wavelength of a wave depends on both the

speed and the frequency of the wave.
Waves Characteristics and Terminology.

As said before, mechanical waves require a medium to travel through. There are 3
types of mediums that mechanical waves can travel through:

1) Gas: A state of matter that has no fixed shape or fixed volume. Where the
particles are so far apart that it is vapour-like. Ex: Oxygen.
2) Liquid: A state of matter where the particles are closer together than a gas,
making it less rigid than a solid but more rigid than a gas. Ex: Water.
3) Solid: A state of matter where the particles are so close together that the
objects cannot pass through. Ex: a Table.
Basics of Waves.

Wave: A periodic disturbance that can transfer energy.

Medium: The Material that waves can travel through.
● Not all kinds of waves can need a medium to travel through. This allows to make
categories of waves that can or cannot travel through mediums.
1) Mechanical Waves: Waves that require a medium to travel through. Sound waves
are an example of mechanical waves because they cannot travel through a vacuum,
it needs a medium.
2) Electromagnetic Waves: Waves that do not need a medium to travel through.
Examples include: Visible light, Infrared, gamma rays. Do not need a medium to
travel through, they can travel through vacuums. Like how light from distant galaxies
can travel through space and reach Earth where we can observe.
 Basics of Waves. Harmonic
Motion.
When a mechanical wave travels through a medium, the
particles in that medium oscillate in a harmonic motion.

The ball in the animation on the right represents a

particle in a solid material. If in the solid material the
particles are bonded together, then the harmonic motion
of one particle will disturb and cause the other particles
to move as well.
Basics of Waves.
The animation below shows how the bonded particles will move if one of the particles
moves. The oscillation is basically passed down through the particles. Which introduces
another kind of wave:
3) Transverse waves: A wave where the particles in the medium are moving
perpendicular to the direction of the wave motion.
- Transverse waves can only travel through solid mediums.
Although the particles are moving up and down, they can also oscillate left and right. Too
which introduces another kind of wave.

Animation of Transverse
waves.
Basics of Waves.
The movement of the particles in a medium going back and forth introduces a new kind
of wave.

4) Longitudinal waves: Waves where the particles of the medium are moving back and
forth (parallel to the direction of the wave motion).

In longitudinal waves the leftmost particle vibrates in a horizontal direction towards the
right in a simple harmonic motion. Causing the other particles to it's right to also do the
same.

- Longitudinal waves can move through solid, liquid and gas mediums.
Resonance.
If an object has a natural frequency
where it oscillates then it has the ability to
higher in oscillations by adding more
energy in small increments at just the
right time.
- An example: If you are on a swing,
and to swing higher, you need to
swing your legs back when the
swing reaches the most back it can
go and then swing your legs forward
along with the swing as it moves
forward.
Standing Waves.
When 2 different waves that are traveling in
the same direction but in opposite
directions. The formation of interference
patterns happens. But if the waves are
traveling in the same medium and opposite
directions but have the same wavelength.
Then it creates an interference pattern
called standing waves.

There are points on the standing waves

that do not move, those are called Nodes.
But the points on the wave that go through
the biggest displacements are called
Antinodes.
Sound.
Sound.
Sound.
Sound.
Sound.
Doppler Effect-Elaborated.
The Doppler Effect happens when the
source of sound is moving towards an
observer. This is the change in sound of the
source that is in motion with respect to an
observer. The more waves means the
frequency is higher As the car passes, the
waves behind it are less,
For Example a super fast car that is driving meaning the frequency is
less.
fast, you can hear it get basically seem
louder and louder the closer it gets to
passing you. Once the car passes you hear
the car going farther and farther and it gets
quiter and quieters as if the sound of the
car fades away.

Here is the equation

Interferometers.
An Interferometer is a scientific
instrument that uses objects such as
lasers and mirrors to analyze and
measure waves by combining them
and creating patterns. Interferometers
are used in Engineering and in optics.
They have also been used in the field
of astronomy to detect gravitational
waves, in a project called LIGO.
Interferometers basically by splitting a
light beam, sending the light and
reflecting it back. This can help the
device measure precisely.
LIGO stands for, Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave
Detector. LIGO is a project that implements the use of
LIGO.
interferometer technology to detect the signs of
gravitational waves. LIGO uses Interferometers by
shooting a laser at a mirror that splits the beam into 2.
Then the laser beams are sent into 2 different vacuum
tunnels that are 4 km long. They are called vacuum tunnels
because there is no air or anything inside the tunnel. This
is to prevent any dust from disrupting the laser beam to
preserve the lasers precision. This can also help enhance
the lasers sensitivity. Then the light reflects back to the
original mirror and the 2 beams join together. Hitting a
photodetector that collects the laser light. If gravitational
waves pass through the laboratory, then the arms will
stretch and squeeze the arms by an amount equivalent to
a fraction of the diameter of a particle. The lasers precision
allows scientists to see the laser pattern change. The team
then can figure out details about the wave. The lab at
LIGO has proven a new branch of astronomy with the
discovery of gravitational waves.
Gravitational waves, are ripples in spacetime that are like Gravitational Waves.
the ripples in water, that are caused by the objects with
high mass, objects like black holes or neutron stars. First
theorized by Albert Einstein in his General Theory of
Relativity. Gravitational waves were detected later in
2015 by the team at the LIGO observatory. They detected
gravitational waves from a source around 1.3 billion light
years away. Meaning the waves took 1.3 billion years to
reach Earth. The source? 2 Black Holes that collided into
each other. Something interesting, the black holes were
around 29 times the mass of the sun and 36 times the
mass of the sun, but the total mass after they collided
was only 62 times the mass of the sun or solar masses
instead of 65. Meaning 3 solar masses worth of mass
was converted into PURE ENERGY that became the
waves that were detected by the LIGO observatory.
Meaning that the gravitational waves that were detected
were very strong, but probably were weaker when it
reached Earth because it diminishes over time.
String Theory is still Connected
to Everything that I have
Covered.

String Theory is still Connected to Everything

that I have Covered.