Every story.

Reflection, Refraction, and Diffraction

Previously in Lesson 3, the behavior of waves traveling along a rope from a more dense medium to a less dense medium (and vice…

Behavior of Waves

Boundary Behavior As a wave travels through a medium, it will often reach the end of the medium and encounter an…

As was discussed in Lesson 1, a wave is produced when a vibrating source periodically disturbs the first particle of a…

The Speed of a Wave

A wave is a disturbance that moves along a medium from one end to the other. If one watches an ocean wave…

Energy Transport and the Amplitude of a Wave

As mentioned earlier, a wave is an energy transport phenomenon that transports energy along a medium without transporting matter. A pulse or…

Frequency and Period of a Wave

The nature of a wave was discussed in Lesson 1 of this unit. In that lesson, it was mentioned that a wave…

Properties of a Wave

The Anatomy of a Wave A transverse wave is a wave in which the particles of the medium are displaced in a…

Categories of Waves

Waves come in many shapes and forms. While all waves share some basic characteristic properties and behaviors, some waves can be…

What is a Wave?

So waves are everywhere. But what makes a wave a wave? What characteristics, properties, or behaviors are shared by the phenomena that we…

The Nature of a Wave

Waves and Wavelike Motion Waves are everywhere. Whether we recognize it or not, we encounter waves on a daily basis.…

Motion of a Mass on a Spring

In a previous part of this lesson, the motion of a mass attached to a spring was described as an example…

Pendulum Motion

A simple pendulum consists of a relatively massive object hung by a string from a fixed support. It typically hangs…