| Waves |
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What are waves? Waves are forms of energy. There are two basic types of waves, Mechanical Waves and Electromagnetic Waves.
Mechanical Waves require a medium to travel through such as a solid, liquid or a gas. The density of the medium will effect the speed at which a wave travels. The more dense the material the faster the wave travels.
Example: Sound Wave
A person speaks into the air and the person hears the sound or words clearly. The same person then tries talking underwater, the person can still hear the sounds but now the words seem somewhat garbled. The person then tries speaking onto a foil metal such as Aluminum foil. The sound now buzzes or rings and the words can not be understood. What has changed? The person speaking? No, the medium has changed in this case from a gas to a liquid and then to a solid. As a result of the change from a less dense material to increasing density, the sound wave speeds up and the human ear can no longer translate the words because the brain can longer translate the faster mechanical sound waves. The result the words become garble.
Gas --->--------->--------->--------->---------->--------Liquid-------->---------->--------->--------->--------->--------Solid
Increasing density relates to in increasing wave speed>
Example: Mechanical Wave
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Waves moving through a medium of water. |
Example: Rubber Ducks in a Bathtub
| Notice the water is still and the ducks remain almost motionless. Then using the energy from my hand, the kinetic energy is transferred from my hand into the medium of water creating waves in the bathtub moving the ducks. |
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Electromagnetic Waves
Electromagnetic Waves are waves of energy that do not need a medium to travel through. These waves for example can travel through the vacuum of space. Examples of these types of waves include, Radio, TV, Microwave, Visible Light, Ultra-Violet, X-Ray, Gamma Ray and Cosmic Waves.
Example: Sun Light
Light is created at the Sun and it travels 93,000,000 miles through the vacuum of space and reflects off the Earth's Surface.
| Light Energy from the Sun |
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