1. Light, Sound and Electromagnetic Waves
Ch. 11 and 15
Light, Sound and Electromagnetic Waves

2. Sound Waves When an object vibrates, it creates sound waves.
Sound waves are compressional waves.
The compression moves away as these molecules collide with other molecules in air.
A rarefaction is formed where the molecules are farther apart.
This series of compressions and rarefactions is the sound wave that you hear.

3. Sound waves con’t
The material in which a sound wave moves is called a medium.
The speed of a sound wave in a medium depends on the type of substance and whether it is a solid, liquid, or gas.
Sound travels slowest in gases and fastest in solids.

4. Sound waves con’t
The amount of energy a wave carries corresponds to its amplitude.
More energy is transferred to the medium when the particles of the medium are forced closer together in the compressions and spread farther apart in the rarefactions.

5. Sound waves con’t

6. Sound waves con’t
The amount of energy transferred by a sound wave through a certain area each second is the intensity of the sound wave.
Loudness is the human perception of sound intensity.
Each unit on the scale for sound intensity is called a decibel (abbreviated as dB).

7. Sound waves con’t
Pitch is the human perception of the frequency of sound waves.

8. Sound waves con’t
A healthy human ear can hear sound waves with frequencies from about 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz.
Sound frequencies above 20,000 Hz are called ultrasonic waves.
Infrasonic, or subsonic, waves have frequencies below 20 Hz.

9. Sound waves con’t
The change in pitch or frequency due to the relative motion of a wave source is called the Doppler effect.

10. Sound wave check! Loudness a. Human perception of loudness
Subsonic b. Unit that measures loudness
Temperature c. Sound travels slowest in this medium
Gas d. Sound with frequencies too low for human hearing
Decibels e. Area of sound wave where particles are squeezed together
Compressions f. Speed of sound is dependent on this

11. Adsorption, Transmission and Reflection of Light Waves
The opaque material in this candleholder only absorbs and reflects light—no light passes through it.
Materials that allow some light to pass through them, like the material of this candleholder are described as translucent.
Transparent materials, such as this candleholder transmit almost all the light striking them, so you can see objects clearly through them.

12. Adsorption, Transmission and Reflection of Light wave con’t

13. Mirrors, Lenses, and the Eye
A mirror is any surface that produces a regular reflection.
A flat smooth mirror is a plane mirror. A plane mirror always produces a virtual image.
A virtual image is an image that is formed in locations where light does not actually reach.
A real image is formed on the same side of the mirror as the object and light passes through the actual image location.

14. Mirrors, Lenses and the Eye con’t
A lens is a transparent object with at least one curved surface that causes light rays to refract.
A convex lens is thicker in the middle than at the edges.

15. Mirrors, Lenses and the Eye con’t
A concave lens is thinner in the middle and thicker at the edges.
Light rays that pass through a concave lens bend away from the optical axis.

16. Mirrors, Lenses and the Eye con’t
If you can see distant objects clearly but can’t bring nearby objects into focus, then you are farsighted.

17. Mirrors, Lenses and the Eye con’t
Eyes cannot form a sharp image on the retina of an object that is far away but can see objects up close is nearsightedness.

18. Check!
Tracing paper is ___________ a. Opaque b. Transparent c. translucent d. reflective A glass window is __________________ a. opaque b. transparent c. translucent d. Reflective A dog is __________________ a. opaque b. Transparent c. translucent d. reflective If light waves change speed when they pass from one medium to another, the light will be ___________ a. reflected b. refracted c. diffracted d. Separated All of the following would cause a diffuse reflection EXCEPT a. brick b. Fabric c. glass d. leather

19. Chapter 15 Electromagnetic Spectrum
Electromagnetic waves are made by vibrating electric charges and can travel through space where matter is not present.
Instead of transferring energy from particle to particle, electromagnetic waves travel by transferring energy between vibrating electric and magnetic fields.

20. Electromagnetic Spectrum
When you bring a magnet near a metal paper clip, the paper clip moves toward the magnet and sticks to it.
The paper clip moved because the magnet exerted a force on it.
The magnet exerts a force without touching the paper clip because all magnets are surrounded by a magnetic field.
Magnetic fields exist around magnets
even if the space around the magnet
contains no matter.

21. Electromagnetic Spectrum
Just as magnets are surrounded by magnetic fields, electric charges are surrounded by electric fields.
An electric field enables charges to exert forces on each other even when they are far apart.
An electric field exists around an electric charge even if the space around it contains no matter.

22. Electromagnetic Spectrum
Electric charges also can be surrounded by magnetic fields.
An electric current flowing through a wire is surrounded by a magnetic field, as shown.

23. Electromagnetic Spectrum
An electric current in a wire is the flow of electrons in a single direction.
It is the motion of these electrons that creates the magnetic field around the wire.
A changing magnetic field creates a changing electric field.
The reverse is also truea changing electric field creates a changing magnetic field.

24. Electromagnetic Spectrum
A vibrating electric charge creates an electromagnetic wave that travels outward in all directions from the charge.
Because the electric and magnetic fields vibrate at right angles to the direction the wave travels, an electromagnetic wave is a transverse wave.

25. Electromagnetic Spectrum
All objects emit electromagnetic waves.
The wavelengths of the emitted waves become shorter as the temperature of the material increases.
As an electromagnetic wave moves, its electric and magnetic fields encounter objects.
These vibrating fields can exert forces on charged particles and magnetic materials, causing them to move.

26. Electromagnetic Spectrum
For example, electromagnetic waves from the Sun cause electrons in your skin to vibrate and gain energy, as shown.
The energy carried by an electromagnetic wave is called radiant energy.

27. Electromagnetic Spectrum
All electromagnetic waves travel at 300,000 km/s in the vacuum of space.
The speed of electromagnetic
waves in space is usually called the
“speed of light.”
In matter, the speed of
electromagnetic waves depends on
the material they travel through.

28. Electromagnetic Spectrum
The frequency of an electromagnetic wave also equals the frequency of the vibrating charge that produces the wave.
This frequency is the number of vibrations, or back and forth movements, of the charge in one second.
As the frequency increases, the wavelength becomes smaller.

29. Electromagnetic Spectrum
In 1887, Heinrich Hertz found that by shining light on a metal, electrons were ejected from the metal
Hertz found that whether or not electrons were ejected depended on the frequency of the light and not the amplitude.
Because the energy carried by a wave depends on its amplitude and not its frequency, this result was mysterious.
Years later, Albert Einstein provided an explanation—electromagnetic waves can behave as a particle, called a photon, whose energy depends on the frequency of the waves.

30. Electromagnetic Spectrum
Because electromagnetic waves could behave as a particle, others wondered whether matter could behave as a wave.
If a beam of electrons were sprayed at two tiny slits, you might expect that the electrons would strike only the area behind the slits, like the spray paint.

31. Electromagnetic Spectrum
Instead, it was found that the electrons formed an interference pattern
Water waves produce an interference pattern after passing through two openings.
It is now known that all particles, not only electrons, can behave like waves.

32. Check!

33. Electromagnetic Spectrum
The entire range of electromagnetic wave frequencies is known as the electromagnetic spectrum.

34. Electromagnetic Spectrum
Even though radio waves carry information that a radio uses to create sound, you can’t hear radio waves.
Unlike a sound wave, a radio wave does not produce compressions and rarefactions as it travels through air.
Radio waves are low-frequency electromagnetic waves with wavelengths longer than about 1 mm.
Radio waves with wavelengths of less than 1 mm are called microwaves.

35. Electromagnetic Spectrum
Microwave ovens heat food when microwaves interact with water molecules in food, as shown.
Each water molecule is positively charged on one side and negatively charged on the other side.
The vibrating electric field inside a microwave oven causes water molecules in food to rotate back and forth billions of times each second.
This rotation causes a type of
friction between water molecules
that generates thermal energy.

36. Electromagnetic Spectrum
When you stand in front of a fireplace, you feel the warmth of the blazing fire.
The warmth you feel is thermal energy transmitted to you by infrared waves, which are a type of electromagnetic wave with wavelengths between about 1 mm and about 750 billionths of a meter.
Can you think of some uses for infrared waves?

37. Electromagnetic Spectrum
Visible light is the range of electromagnetic waves that you can detect with your eyes.
Visible light has wavelengths around 750 billionths to 400 billionths of a meter.

38. Electromagnetic Spectrum
Ultraviolet waves are electromagnetic waves with wavelengths from about 400 billionths to 10 billionths of a meter.
Overexposure to ultraviolet rays can cause skin damage and cancer.
Can you name some ways UV light can be useful?

39. Electromagnetic Spectrum
The electromagnetic waves with the shortest wavelengths and highest frequencies are X rays and gamma rays.
Both X rays and gamma rays are high energy electromagnetic waves.
What are some uses for X rays and gamma rays?

40. Check!