- 1Kinematics
- 2Forces
- 3Energy
- 4 Waves & Sound
- 5Electricity & Magnetism
Unit 4 of 5 · SPH3U
Waves & Sound
How can a pattern carry energy and information?
See a wave as a travelling pattern, name its four numbers, and explain what happens when waves meet, fit, or move.
Energy moves from store to store. Next: how it moves through a medium without the medium going anywhere.
3 topics · 1 to play
What this unit covers
Mechanical waves and their fingerprints: frequency, wavelength, interference, resonance.
Topics
Topic 1: Two waves meet on a rope. Do they crash, bounce, or something else?9 ideas11 practice
- Idea 1, The pattern moves, the stuff stays. Not started. Next for you.
- Idea 2, How tall. Not started.
- Idea 3, How long. Not started.
- Idea 4, How often. Not started.
- Idea 5, The medium sets the speed. Not started.
- Idea 6, Across or along. Not started.
- Idea 7, They add, point by point. Not started.
- Idea 8, Crest meets trough. Not started.
- Idea 9, The end sends it back. Not started.
Ontario E2.1, E2.4, E3.1, E3.3
Topic 2: Why does a plucked string play a note, and not noise?6 ideas11 practice
Topic 3: An ambulance passes and the note drops. What actually changed?5 ideas10 practice
The mental models this world builds
Each one is a card in the library, taught by one of the topics above.
- The pattern travels; the medium stays
- Four numbers for any wave; the medium sets the speed
- Overlapping waves add, point by point
- A standing wave: nodes still, antinodes widest
- Only whole half-wavelengths fit a length
- A push on time compounds: resonance
- The medium owns the speed; the source owns the birthplaces
- Motion squeezes the crests ahead and stretches those behind
- Sound is a squeeze passed particle to particle
What you will be able to explain
- Say what travels in a wave and what stays, and name its four numbers.
- Use the medium's fixed speed to trade frequency for wavelength.
- Add two waves point by point, and explain a standing wave as that sum.
- Explain why a string plays notes, a bottle hums, and a timed push grows.
- Explain a passing siren without changing the siren.
Energy moved from store to store in the last world; here it moves without the stuff moving. Superposition is the one rule for two waves; standing waves and resonance are that rule between boundaries; the Doppler shift is what motion does to the spacing of a pattern.
Labs and games
Pure play. Nothing here is recorded, ever.