WEEK 4

DATE:
TOPIC: PROPERTIES OF WAVES
CLASS: SS 2
SUBJECT: PHYSICS
PREVIOUS KNOWLEDGE: when stone is dropped into a still pod, waves are generated.
Students are familiar with reflection from mirror usage.
INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS: bowl of water, stone, glass of water, ruler. Mirror.
REFERENCE MATERIAL: 1. Anyakoha, N.W (2011). New School Physics for
Senior Secondary Schools, Onitsha: Africana FEP.
2 Awe, O. and Okunola, O.O. (1992). Comprehensive Certificate Physics Ibadan
University Press.
3 Nelkon, M. (1999). Principles of Physics for Senior Secondary Schools. Ibadan:
Longman Group Limited.
4 [Link]
5 [Link]

OBJECTIVES
By the end of the lesson, students should be able to:
 Describe each property of waves.
 State the laws of reflection
 State the laws of refraction

CONTENT

MATHEMATICAL REPRESENTATION OF WAVE MOTION

The vertical position of a point on the wave, y, can be found as a function of the
horizontal position, x, and the time, t, when we look at it. We thank the kind
mathematicians for doing this work for us, and obtain the following useful equations
to describe the wave motion:
y(x, t) = A sin ω(t - x/v) = A sin 2π f(t - x/v)
y(x, t) = A sin 2π(t/T - x/v)
y(x, t) = A sin (ω t - kx)

PROPERTIES OF WAVES
INTRODUCTION
A wave is a transfer of energy from one point to another without the transfer of material
between the two points.
It is important to realize that a wave is quite a different object than a particle. A baseball
thrown through a window transfers energy from one point to another, but this involves the
movement of a material object between two points. A common example of a wave is a wave
on the ocean – we know they carry energy, as they cause erosion on the shore, but material
(i. e. , water) is not continuously being transferred onto the shore. Another example of a wave
is a sound wave, which is vibrations of air molecules which propagate from one place to
another. These also carry energy, but do not involve the mass movement of air from one place
to another.
Wavefronts

Wavefront is a line that joins all the points vibrating in phase, such as a line passing through
similar wave crests. It consists of crest and trough. Crest is the peaky part of the wave and
trough is the lowest part of the wave.

Wavefront is perpendicular to the direction of wave movement.

PROPERTIES OF WAVES
Reflection of Waves

Waves will travel until they encounter an obstacle – such as the wall of the tank or an object
placed within the water. The diagram at the right depicts a series of straight waves
approaching a long barrier extending at an angle across the tank of water. The direction that
these wavefronts (straight-line crests) are traveling through the medium is the incident wave.
Upon reaching the barrier placed within the medium, these waves bounce off the barrier and
head in a different direction.
Regardless of the angle at which the wavefronts approach the barrier, one general law of
reflection holds true: the waves will always reflect in such a way that the angle at which
they approach the barrier equals the angle at which they reflect off the barrier. This is
known as the law of reflection.
The laws of reflection states that (i) The incident wave, the reflected wave and the
normal all lie on the same plane. (ii) The angle of incidence is equal to the angle of
reflection

Refraction of Waves
Reflection involves a change in direction of waves when they bounce off a barrier.
Refraction of waves involves a change in the direction of waves as they pass from one
medium to another.
Refraction, or the bending of the path of the waves, is accompanied by a change in speed and
wavelength of the waves. The speed of a wave is dependent upon the properties of the
medium through which the waves travel. So if the medium (and its properties) is changed, the
speed of the waves is changed.

Diffraction of Waves
Reflection involves a change in direction of waves when they bounce off a barrier; refraction
of waves involves a change in the direction of waves as they pass from one medium to
another; and diffraction involves a change in direction of waves as they pass through an
opening or around a barrier in their path. Water waves have the ability to travel around
corners, around obstacles and through openings.

This ability is most obvious for water waves with longer wavelengths. Diffraction can be
demonstrated by placing small barriers and obstacles in a ripple tank and observing the path
of the water waves as they encounter the obstacles. The waves are seen to pass around the
barrier into the regions behind it; subsequently the water behind the barrier is disturbed. The
amount of diffraction (the sharpness of the bending) increases with increasing wavelength and
decreases with decreasing wavelength. In fact, when the wavelength of the waves is smaller
than the obstacle, no noticeable diffraction occurs.
Reflection, refraction and diffraction are all boundary behaviors of waves associated with the
bending of the path of a wave. The bending of the path is an observable behavior when the
medium is a two- or three-dimensional medium. Reflection occurs when there is a bouncing
off of a barrier. Reflection of waves off straight barriers follows the law of reflection.
Reflection of waves off parabolic barriers results in the convergence of the waves at a focal
point. Refraction is the change in direction of waves which occurs when waves travel from
one medium to another. Refraction is always accompanied by a wavelength and speed
change. Diffraction is the bending of waves around obstacles and openings. The amount of
diffraction increases with increasing wavelength.
Interference
Wave interference is the phenomenon that occurs when two waves meet while traveling along
the same medium. The interference of waves causes the medium to take on a shape that
results from the net effect of the two individual waves upon the particles of the medium. To
begin our exploration of wave interference, consider two pulses of the same amplitude
traveling in different directions along the same medium.

Polarization is a property of waves that can oscillate with more than one
orientation. Electromagnetic waves, such as light, and gravitational waves exhibit polarization
whereas this is not a concern with sound waves in a gas or liquid which have only one
possible polarization, namely the direction in which the wave is travelling.
In an electromagnetic wave such as light, both the electric field and magnetic field are
oscillating but in different directions; by convention the “polarization” of light refers to the
polarization of the electric field. Light which can be approximated as a plane wave in free
space or in an isotropic medium propagates as a transverse wave—both the electric and
magnetic fields are perpendicular to the wave’s direction of travel. The oscillation of these
fields may be in a single direction (linear polarization), or the field may rotate at the optical
frequency (circular or elliptical polarization). In that case the direction of the fields’ rotation,
and thus the specified polarization, may be either clockwise or counter clockwise; this is
referred to as the wave’s chirality or handedness.
The most common optical materials (such as glass) are isotropic and simply preserve the
polarization of a wave but do not differentiate between polarization states. However there are
important classes of materials classified as birefringent or optically active in which this is not
the case and a wave’s polarization will generally be modified or will affect propagation
through it. A polarizer is an optical filter that transmits only one polarization.

EVALUATION
1. State the laws of reflection.
2. What is a wavefront?
3. What is polarization of waves?
4. A certain wave motion is represented by y = 20sin(4t - 3x), if y is in metres, calculate
i. Ampitude
ii. Period
iii. Wavelength

ASSIGNMENT

1. What are polaroids?

2. State 3 uses of polaroids.
3. What types of waves cannot be polarized?
4. What is wave diffraction?
PRESENTATION
STEP I The teacher explains reflection in a mirror as a result of light waves bouncing back an
obstacle (the mirror)
STEP II The teacher introduces refraction by inserting a straight opaque ruler in a beaker of
clear water, and explains the observed apparent bending as due to refraction of light waves
passing through the water from air.
STEP III The teacher describes other properties of waves.