Properties of Waves

Topic Content:

Properties or characteristics of a wave include:

1. Reflection of Waves:

A wave is reflected when it hits a hard surface or bounces back after hitting an obstacle.

When incident wavefrontsA wavefront is the set of all locations in a medium where the wave is at the same phase. This could be where all the crests are, where all the troughs... More hit a hard surface, they are reflected such that the angle of incidence of the wave is equal to the angle of reflection of the wave.

2. Refraction of Waves:

When a wave travels from one medium to another medium, the velocity of the wave changes or the wave bends or changes direction.

The change in velocity brings about a change in the direction of the wave.

The change in direction when a wave travels from one medium to another medium of different densities is called refraction.

The refractive index, n =   \( \frac{Speed \; of \; wave \; in \; medium\: 1}{Speed \; of \; wave \; in \; medium \: 2} \\ = \frac{v_1}{v_2}\)

The speed of the frequency of the wave remains constant during refraction, therefore:

• v₁ = \( \scriptsize f \lambda_1 \)
• v2 = \( \scriptsize f \lambda_2 \)

where λ₁ is the wavelength of the waves in medium 1, and λ₂ is the wavelength of the waves in medium 2.

n = \( \frac{f \lambda_1}{f \lambda_2} \\ =  \frac{\lambda_1}{\lambda_2} \)

n