Today we learned about waves, there are more than just the kind at the beach. There are sound waves, light waves, radio waves etc. A wave is defined as a transfer of energy in space and time. We then had a little vocabulary lesson on words that related to waves such as: wave length, wave speed, frequency, constructive interference and destructive interference. Most of these words were really straight forward. The two definitions I think are really important are transverse wave and longitudinal wave. A transverse wave is when the energy and the motion are perpendicular, while a longitudinal wave is when they are parallel. Next we did this cool slinky lab where we had to use waves to try and hit some blocks but not others. It was confusing until you got the hang of it, then it was easy-peasy. We ended the day learning how to graph constructive and destructive waves. This was really confusing but I think I understand because of Brandon and Mr. Blake, who were kind enough to act it out.
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| Observing the slinky lab. |
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| Brandon and Mr. Blake acting it out. |
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| Me at Sherwoods running away from the waves. |
When I thought of waves in real life the first thing I though about was the ocean, this didn't seem like it would have anything to do with physics. Then I thought about what Mr. Blake said in class, the waves on the beach are waves. They can be measured just like sound waves, using the amplitude. This is the measurement from the equilibrium to the highest point, the crest or the lowest point, the trough.
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