CIE IGCSE PHYSICS NOTES
Chapter 3 Waves
3.1 General properties of waves
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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• 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
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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
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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!!!!
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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.
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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.
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• 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
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• 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.
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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)
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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.
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