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3.2 Waves

Integrated Science · Grade 9 · 16 lessons in the design

What this covers

  • Generation of waves.
  • Classification of waves as longitudinal and transverse.
  • Characteristics of waves.
  • Remote sensing.
  • Applications of waves in day-to-day life: medical, communication and cooking.

What you will be able to do

  • describe the generation of waves in nature
  • classify waves as longitudinal and transverse
  • describe basic characteristics of waves in nature
  • describe remote sensing in relation to waves
  • describe applications of waves in day-to-day life
  • appreciate the applications of waves in day-to-day life

Key questions

“How are waves applied in our day-to-day life?”

Lessons

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  1. What a wave is
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    A disturbance that carries energy without carrying matter.
  2. Transverse waves
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    Particles vibrate across the direction of travel, giving crests and troughs.
  3. Longitudinal waves
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    Particles vibrate along the direction of travel, giving compressions and rarefactions.
  4. Comparing the two kinds
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    One difference decides all the rest.
  5. Amplitude and wavelength
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    How far a particle swings, and how long one whole wave is.
  6. Frequency and period
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    Waves per second, and seconds per wave.
  7. The wave equation
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    Speed equals frequency times wavelength.
  8. Using the wave equation
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    Equation, substitute, answer, unit. In that order, every time.
  9. Phase
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    Two points are in phase when they are doing the same thing at the same time.
  10. Straight lines and reflection
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    Waves keep going straight until something stops them, and then they bounce.
  11. Bending and spreading
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    Change a wave's speed and it bends; give it a gap and it spreads.
  12. Remote sensing
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    Finding out about something without touching it.
  13. How remote sensing works
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    Three things radiation can do, and two ways of supplying it.
  14. Waves in medicine
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    Seeing inside, scanning in detail, and treating disease.
  15. Communication, detection and cooking
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    The same physics carries a phone call, finds an aircraft and heats a meal.
  16. Waves: the whole sub-strand
    40 min · 2 practice tasks · quiz
    Generation, kinds, parts and uses, and one sentence that holds it together.