AQA GCSE/IGCSE Physics notes Topic 3 – Properties of waves, including light and sound

Topic 3 – Properties of waves, including light and sound

Table of Content

3.1 General wave properties ................................................... 2

3.2 Light .................................................................................. 3
3.2.1 Reflection of light ...................................................................................................... 3
3.2.2 Refraction of light ...................................................................................................... 4
3.2.3 Thin converging lens .................................................................................................. 6
3.2.4 Dispersion of light ...................................................................................................... 7

3.3 Electromagnetic spectrum ................................................ 7

3.4 Sound ................................................................................ 8

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 AQA GCSE/IGCSE Physics notes Topic 3 – Properties of waves, including light and sound
3.1 General wave properties
• Waves transfer energy without transferring matter
• Wave motion is illustrated by vibration in ropes, springs & water

Transverse waves Longitudinal wave

Direction of travel perpendicular to direction of Direction of travel parallel to vibration/oscillation

vibration
Eg electromagnetic wave, S-wave, Eg sound wave, ultrasound wave, P-wave
water wave

Wavelength - distance between a pt on a wave to corresponding pt on next wave

Amplitude - max displacement of a pt from mid-position
Frequency - no of waves per sec
Speed - distance travelled by wave per unit time

Reflection Refraction

• ∠ of incidence = ∠ of reflection • Shallow - slow & short λ

• Can change speed & wavelength
• Wave changes direction
Suggest a cause for the change in direction of the
wave (1)
• Waves move faster in region B or slower in
region A
• If the waves slow down the waves will bunch
together, causing the wavelength to decrease.

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 AQA GCSE/IGCSE Physics notes Topic 3 – Properties of waves, including light and sound
The waves will also start to travel closer to the
normal
• If the waves speed up then they will spread out,
causing the wavelength to increase. The waves
will also turn slightly away from the normal

Diffraction
↓ gap ↑ gap
↑ wavelength ↓ wavelength
↑ diffraction ↓ diffraction

3.2 Light
3.2.1 Reflection of light
• Image in a mirror is virtual, upright, laterally inverted, same size as object reflected
• Luminous objects - make their own light (eg sun)
• Non-luminous objects - don't make own light

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 AQA GCSE/IGCSE Physics notes Topic 3 – Properties of waves, including light and sound

Virtual Image & Ray Diagram

• Light from the object hits the mirror,
reflecting from it (i=r)
• To an observer, the reflected ray appears to
have come from the right-hand side of the
mirror
• The reflected ray can be traced back in this
directions, forming a virtual ray
• This can be repeated for another ray
travelling in a slightly different direction
• An image of the object will appear where
these two virtual rays cross
• The type of image formed in the mirror is
called a virtual image
• A virtual image is formed by the divergence of rays from the image, and cannot be projected onto a
piece of paper (because the rays don’t actually go through the image)

3.2.2 Refraction of light

Refraction: bending when light travels from one medium to another due to change in speed of ray of light
Critical angle: ∠ of incidence when ∠ of refraction = 90o
Explain why image of coin is a virtual image?
• It cannot be formed on a screen

𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜 𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙ℎ𝑡𝑡 𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 = 3 × 108 /𝑠𝑠

• When light enters a glass block, it slows down, causing it to change direction.
• When it leaves the block it speeds up again, changing direction once more

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 AQA GCSE/IGCSE Physics notes Topic 3 – Properties of waves, including light and sound
Diagram showing the refraction of light as it passes through a rectangular block

• As the light enters the block it bends towards the normal line (Remember: Enters Towards)
• When it leaves the block it bends away from the normal line (Remember: Leaves Away)

Snell's law
𝑛𝑛1 𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝜃𝜃1 = 𝑛𝑛2 𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝜃𝜃2

sin 𝑖𝑖
𝑛𝑛 =
sin 𝑟𝑟

Refractive index
1 𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜 𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙ℎ𝑡𝑡 𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣
𝑛𝑛 = 𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜
sin 𝑐𝑐 𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜 𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙ℎ𝑡𝑡 𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚
𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅 𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜 𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙 = 1.5

Explain why the quantity refractive index does not have a unit (1)
• Refractive index is a ratio of 2 similar quantities

Total internal reflection

• When light is moving from a denser medium towards a less dense one, most of the light is
refracted, but a small amount of it can be internally reflected.
• However, if the angle of the light is great enough then instead of being refracted, ALL of the light is
reflected
Conditions for total internal reflection
• More dense to less dense (most of the light is refracted, but a small a
• ∠ of incidence greater than critical ∠

Optical Fibres
• long thin rod of glass surrounded by cladding which uses total internal reflection to transfer
information by light, even when bent

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 AQA GCSE/IGCSE Physics notes Topic 3 – Properties of waves, including light and sound
• Allow high-spped transmission of data on internet
• Use in medicine (endoscopes, inside-body flexible cameras) and communications (high speed data
transfer)

Describe use of optical fibres in medicine

Light travels down optic fibres into or out of body to examine internal organ eg endoscopes

3.2.3 Thin converging lens

Principal focus
• When parallel rays of light (travelling parallel to the principal axis) pass through a lens, they are
brought to a focus at a point known as the principal focus

Focal length
• Distance of the principal focus from the lens
• Depends on how curved the lens is

Real image - image can be caught on a screen

Virtual image - behind the lens

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 AQA GCSE/IGCSE Physics notes Topic 3 – Properties of waves, including light and sound

3.2.4 Dispersion of light

Monochromatic - single frequency of light

• When white light is passed through a glass prism, it splits

up into its constituent colours coz different colours travel
at different speeds in glass, so they refract by different
amounts
• Longer the wavelength, less the light refracts (Red)

3.3 Electromagnetic spectrum

Properties
• Transverse waves
• Do not need a medium
• Travel at 3 × 108 m/s in a vacuum
• All obey
𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣 = 𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓 × 𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤ℎ
𝑣𝑣 = 𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓

(Roman Man Invented Very Unusual X-ray Guns)

Uses Safety awareness / precautions

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 AQA GCSE/IGCSE Physics notes Topic 3 – Properties of waves, including light and sound
Radio waves • Radio & TV communication (Not tested)
Microwaves • Satellite communication Internal heating of body cells
• In microwave ovens
Infra-red • Remote controllers (Not tested)
radiation • Thermal imaging
Visible light • Fibre optics (Not tested)
• Eyes (seeing)
Ultraviolet • Suntan beds (Not tested)
• Detecting forgeries
X-rays • Medical imaging • Cause mutation of body cells leading to cancer
• Security imaging • Take at low dosage
• Don't allow other ppl in the room when X-ray
being taken
Gamma rays • Cancer treatment (Not tested)
• Sterilizing medical
equipment
Ionizing radiation
• Electrons have enough energy to break away from atoms to produce ions
Eg Ultraviolent, X-rays, gamma rays

3.4 Sound
Properties
• Longitudinal wave

• Wavelength - distance between compression / rarefaction

Rarefaction Region of
• Low pressure
• Molecules far apart
Compression High pressure
•
Molecules closer
•
• Medium is needed to transmit sound waves
Air 350 m/s
Water 1500 m/s
Solid 5000 m/s
• Light travels faster than sound

• Human range of audibility - 20Hz to 20000Hz

• Ultrasound: sound with frequent above audible by humans (20000Hz)
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 AQA GCSE/IGCSE Physics notes Topic 3 – Properties of waves, including light and sound

Echo
• Occur when sounds reflected when hit flat, hard surface (eg wall)
2 × 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑
𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 =
𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡
2𝑑𝑑
𝑠𝑠 =
𝑡𝑡
Experiment
1. One student stands on one side, the other student extend the measuring tape to 100m & stand on
the other end.
2. One student fire pistol at one end.
3. The student on the other end start stopwatch when see smoke & stop stopwatch when hear sound.
distance
4. Calculate speed of sound by speed = time

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AQA GCSE/IGCSE Physics notes Topic 3 – Properties of waves, including light and sound

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