Scribd
Upload
415 views14 pages

Cie Igcse Physics Chapter 3 2023 Onw

The document discusses various topics in waves and optics. It defines key terms like amplitude, wavelength, period, and frequency. It describes the properties and types of waves, including transverse and longitudinal waves. It also covers topics in light, including reflection, refraction, lenses, prisms, and the electromagnetic spectrum. Sound waves are discussed as well, noting they are longitudinal waves that require a medium and have highest speed in solids.

Uploaded by

Zeinab Elkholy
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
415 views14 pages

Cie Igcse Physics Chapter 3 2023 Onw

The document discusses various topics in waves and optics. It defines key terms like amplitude, wavelength, period, and frequency. It describes the properties and types of waves, including transverse and longitudinal waves. It also covers topics in light, including reflection, refraction, lenses, prisms, and the electromagnetic spectrum. Sound waves are discussed as well, noting they are longitudinal waves that require a medium and have highest speed in solids.

Uploaded by

Zeinab Elkholy
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 14

CIE IGCSE PHYSICS NOTES

Chapter 3 Waves

3.1 General properties of waves

Page | 1
Senpaicorner.com
CIE IGCSE PHYSICS NOTES

• Which of the picture above shows a wave in action?


• Waves transfer energy between points without transferring matter
• Best way to visualize this would be to use a slinky and shake it up and down.
• You will see a wave but the rings on the slink does not actually travel with the
wave.

• Amplitude (A) is the maximum displacement from the original position.


• The SI unit for amplitude is in meters.
• Wavelength (λ) is the horizontal distance between two points that are in phase.
• The SI unit for amplitude is in meters as well.
• The period (T) is the time taken for the wave to complete a cycle or return to its
original displacement.
• The SI unit for periods is seconds.
• Frequency (f) is the number of complete cycles in a second (i.e., how many times
did the wave go up, down and up again or down, up, and down again in 1 second).
• The SI unit for frequency is hertz (Hz) OR seconds-1.
• Hence the relationship between frequency (f) and period (T) is

1
𝑓=
𝑇

Page | 2
Senpaicorner.com
CIE IGCSE PHYSICS NOTES

• The speed of a wave can be calculated using the following equation

Speed (m/s) = Frequency (Hz) x Wavelength (m)

v=fxλ

• There are two types of waves.


• In a transverse wave, particles vibrate perpendicular the lines of motion and
consists of a series of “peaks” and “valleys”.
• In a longitudinal wave, particles vibrate along the lines of motion and consists of a
series of compression and expansion.

• Examples of transverse waves include; electromagnetism, water waves and S-


seismic waves.
• Examples of longitudinal waves include: sound waves and P-seismic waves.
• A wave must be able to demonstrate these three phenomena in order to be
considered as a wave.
• Reflection is the change of direction when a wave collides with a reflective barrier.

• Refraction is the change of direction when the wave goes through a change of
medium.
• Refraction occurs when the direction of motion is not perpendicular to the border
between the deep and shallow regions.
• The speed of the water changes when there is a change in the depth of the water.

Page | 3
Senpaicorner.com
CIE IGCSE PHYSICS NOTES

• From deep to shallow waters, the wave’s speed decreases as the wavelength
becomes shorter.
• From shallow to deep waters the wave’s speed increases as the wavelength becomes
longer (Hint: recall v = fλ).
• One way to imagine this is to picture deep waters as a broad road allowing many
cars to travel and shallow water as a narrow road causing a jam.

Deeper

Hint: 1) Draw a line representing the direction of the wave


propagation first (blue arrow)
2) Then only draw the normal line (green arrow)

• Diffraction is shown when a wave spreads when the wave passes through an opening
or an edge.
• Diffraction increases when the size of the gap decreases or the wavelength of the
waves increases.

• A ripple tank can be used to demonstrate the above three phenomenon.

Page | 4
Senpaicorner.com
CIE IGCSE PHYSICS NOTES

3.2 Light

• Light is a wave because it undergoes reflection, refraction and diffraction.


• Reflection

i=r

• Types of mirrors

• Reflection in plane mirror

• The image form is upright, virtual, laterally inverted and same size as object.

Page | 5
Senpaicorner.com
CIE IGCSE PHYSICS NOTES

• Refraction
• Refraction is the bending of light ray at the boundary of two medium as the light
ray propagates from a medium to another with different density.

• When light passes through a medium which is denser


i>r
• When light passes through a medium which is less dense
i<r
• Snell’s law states that the value of (sin i) / (sin r) is constant for light passing
from one given medium into another

sin i
= constant, n
sin r

Here n is the refractive index. Remember that n>1


• Another equation for refractive index is

speed of light in vacuum c


Refractive index, n = =
speed of light in medium v

Page | 6
Senpaicorner.com
CIE IGCSE PHYSICS NOTES

Note: The greater the refractive index, the denser is the medium. Hence, the
speed of light in the medium will be slower.
• Total internal reflection and the critical angle

Where

1
𝑛=
sin 𝑐

Note: The light ray must propagate from an optically denser medium to an optically
less dense medium. The angle of incident must exceed the critical angle.
• Some phenomenon related to internal reflection and the critical angle
1) Mirage
2) Rainbow

Page | 7
Senpaicorner.com
CIE IGCSE PHYSICS NOTES

• For a converging lens (convex lens), when parallel rays of light pass through a lens,
they are brought to focus at a point known as the principal focus (f).
• The distance of the principal focus from the lens is called the focal length which
depend on the curvature of the lens.
• There are three rules for drawing ray diagram for convex lens

• The characteristics of the image form using a convex lens is always either virtual
or real; upright or inverted; magnify or diminish.
• DO NOT memorize the characteristics for different object positions.
• Try to use the three rules and draw them out!!!!

Page | 8
Senpaicorner.com
CIE IGCSE PHYSICS NOTES

• When light is refracted by a prism, the incidence ray is not parallel to the emergent
ray, since the prism’s sides are not parallel.
• If a beam of white light is passed through a prism it is dispersed into a spectrum.
• White light is a mixture of colours, and the prism refracts each colour by a
different amount – red is deviated the least and violet the most.
• The seven colours of the spectrum are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo
and violet.
• Light is an electromagnetic wave; hence it is a transverse wave.
• Red has the largest wavelength.
• Violet has the shortest wavelength.
• Light of a single wavelength is known as monochromatic.

Page | 9
Senpaicorner.com
CIE IGCSE PHYSICS NOTES

3.3 Electromagnetic spectrum

• Electromagnetic waves are transverse waves.


• It consists of electric field and magnetic field components.
• It can propagate without the need of a medium to carry them unlike mechanical
waves.
• The speed that electromagnetic waves travel at is 3x108 ms-1.
• If this number seems familiar it’s because that’s the speed of light.
• Light is a wave or more specifically an electromagnetic wave.
• There are seven types of waves in the electromagnetic spectrum as shown below.
• Based on the diagram below, frequency (f) increases from left to right.
• While wavelength (λ) decreases from left to right.
• This is due to v = f x λ
• The speed of the wave is constant (v), hence if the frequency (f) decreases the
wavelength (λ) must increase to compensate.

Page | 10
Senpaicorner.com
CIE IGCSE PHYSICS NOTES

• Electromagnetic radiation is used for communication and transmission of


information.
• The waves that are used in this way are radio waves (radio), microwaves (mobile
phone, Bluetooth and WIFI), infrared radiation (aircon remove control) and visible
light (optical fiber).
• The method of communication requires the use of a code or signals.
• There are two types of signal
1) Analogue
2) Digital

Page | 11
Senpaicorner.com
CIE IGCSE PHYSICS NOTES

• An analogue signal changes in frequency and amplitude with time.


• A digital signal has only 0s and 1s

• Digital signals have advantages over analogue signals.


• Digital signals have increased capacity, better quality and can be stored and
processed by computers.
• Increased capacity allow digital signals to carry more information compared to
analogue.
• Both digital and analogue can pick up unwanted signals that distort the original
sound (remember hearing static over radio?)
• However, the advantage of digital is that noise in digital signals can be clean up in
process known as regeneration because each pulse is 0 or 1 other values can be
removed.

Page | 12
Senpaicorner.com
CIE IGCSE PHYSICS NOTES

3.4 Sound

• Recall that sound waves are longitudinal waves.


• Sound waves are mechanical waves as they require a medium to propagate
through.
• Sound waves travel through solid, liquid and gas by “passing along” the vibration
from one particle to the next.
• Hence the speed of sound is highest in solids (concrete: 5000m/s) then in liquids
(pure water: 1400m/s) and slowest in gases (air: 330m/s)

Page | 13
Senpaicorner.com
CIE IGCSE PHYSICS NOTES

• The speed of sound can be calculated by using

𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 𝑠𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑


𝑆𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑 =
𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑛

• An echo is produced when sound is reflected of a surface


• Pitch is related to the frequency of the sound.
• The greater the frequency, the higher the pitch.
• Humans can hear between 20 Hz and 20 kHz.
• Human vocal range is between 80 Hz to 1100 Hz.
• Soprano singers would be in the higher range of frequency while bass singer would
be on the lower!
• Sound waves less than 20 Hz are known as infrasound while those above 20 kHz are
known as ultrasound.
• Loudness is related to the amplitude of the sound. The bigger the amplitude the
louder the sound.

Page | 14
Senpaicorner.com

You might also like

pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy