Tobin Science logoTobinScience
0
High School Physical ScienceUnit 7SPS9.a–e

Waves

Energy on the move — without the stuff moving with it.

Put your ear to the rail.

Long before anyone could hear a train coming through the air, scouts and railroad workers pressed an ear to the steel rail — and heard it. Sound races through steel at nearly 6,000 m/s, about 17 times faster than through air. But light does the opposite: it SLOWS DOWN in water and glass, which is why a straw in a glass of water looks broken. Why would the same "thicker" stuff speed one wave up and slow the other down?

Start: What Do You Already Know? → Explore on your own ↓
9activities
14new words
4parts
∞replays — new every time
Open world

Explore

Jump in anywhere, in any order. Every activity reshuffles each time you play, so there's always something new. You earn hertz for every right answer.

Think about it

Big questions to wonder about

By the end of this unit, you'll be able to answer every one of these.

Why is sound so much faster through steel than through air?

Why can sunlight cross 150 million km of empty space when sound can't cross a vacuum jar?

Why does an ambulance siren's pitch drop as it passes — but the driver hears no change?

When a stadium does "the wave," what actually travels around the stadium?

Vocabulary

Word Wall

The 14 words you'll own by the end of this unit. Tap any card to flip it. Words you collect in the activities get a ✓.

The road ahead

Unit Roadmap

Four parts, in the order we'll learn them.

1

Part 1: Wave Anatomy & Types

  • What a wave is
  • Transverse vs. longitudinal
  • Measuring a wave
  • v = fλ
SPS9.a
2

Part 2: The EM Spectrum & EM vs. Mechanical

  • Electromagnetic waves
  • Radio to gamma
  • λ, f, and energy
  • Light math: c = fλ
SPS9.aSPS9.b
3

Part 3: Wave Behaviors & Interactions

  • Reflection
  • Refraction
  • Diffraction
  • Interference
SPS9.c
4

Part 4: Sound, Media & the Doppler Effect

  • Sound needs a medium
  • Speed of sound in media
  • Speed of light in media
  • The Doppler Effect
SPS9.dSPS9.e
Where we're headed

Learning Targets & Success Criteria

Learning Targets

I am learning to…

  • Identify the parts of longitudinal and transverse waves
  • Identify the similarities and differences between electromagnetic and mechanical waves
  • Interpret the relationship among wavelength, frequency and energy in electromagnetic waves
  • Interpret the relationship between amplitude and energy in mechanical waves
Success Criteria

I will be successful when I can…

  • Label a diagram of a longitudinal and transverse wave
  • Compare & contrast the characteristics of electromagnetic and mechanical waves
  • Construct a model to compare electromagnetic waves and mechanical waves
  • Measure the wavelength and frequency of a wave and explain how wavelength and frequency relate to the energy of the wave
  • Identify the placement of each type of wave (e.g., gamma, x-ray, ultraviolet, visible, infrared, micro, radio) along the electromagnetic spectrum
  • Compare the relative wave energy, frequency and wavelength of different regions of the electromagnetic spectrum
  • Explain how wavelength and frequency relate to each other
  • Measure the amplitude of a mechanical wave and illustrate how amplitude relates to the energy of the wave
Georgia Standards of Excellence

Standards

SPS9

Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to explain the properties of waves.

SPS9.a

Analyze and interpret data to identify the relationships among wavelength, frequency, and energy in electromagnetic waves and amplitude and energy in mechanical waves.

SPS9.b

Ask questions to compare and contrast the characteristics of electromagnetic and mechanical waves.

SPS9.c

Develop models based on experimental evidence that illustrate the phenomena of reflection, refraction, interference, and diffraction.

SPS9.d

Analyze and interpret data to explain how different media affect the speed of sound and light waves.

SPS9.e

Develop and use models to explain the changes in sound waves associated with the Doppler Effect.

Watch

One-minute videos

Quick previews from Simple Science Videos.

Types of Waves

SPS9.a · SPS9.b

Wave Properties

SPS9.a

The Electromagnetic Spectrum

SPS9.a · SPS9.b

Wave Behavior

SPS9.c

The Doppler Effect

SPS9.e