Wave Behavior 6.3.3

​Wave Behavior 6.3.3
Notebook page 123

​How would you describe what's happening in each example?

​Absorption: process in which matter takes up the energy of a wave


Interference: the interaction of waves with one another


Reflection: the process in which light waves bounch off of an object


Frequency: the number of cycles a wave complete in a period of time


Transmission: the movement of waves through a medium


Wave: a pattern of motion that transfers energy from one place to another

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Match

Match the picture to the word

absorption

interference

reflection

wavelength

• absorption

• interference

• reflection

• wavelength

​In the 1940s, home televisions used an antenna to receive signals. The antenna received radio waves that the TV converted into pictures and sound.

John Walson was the owner of an appliance store in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania. Mahanoy City is a town nestled in a valley in the Appalachian Mountains.

The mountains on either side of town blocked the transmission of the radio waves that carried TV signals. Few people in Mahanoy City owned televisions because the reception on the TV sets was poor.

​How could you solve this problem?

Then Walson had an idea. He installed an antenna on top of a nearby mountain and ran a cable from the antenna to his store in town. When he plugged the cable into a television, the picture was clear. A customer noticed the clear picture and asked Walson to run the cable to his house as well. Soon, Walson was charging people to install community antenna television, or CATV, along with a monthly subscription fee.

Over time, Walson purchased similar cable television systems from competitors and founded the Service Electric Corporation. Today, millions of Americans subscribe to cable television services. Walson's simple solution to a local problem with wave transmission led to a multi-billion dollar industry.

​Transmission

​Recall that transmission occurs when a wave travels through a medium. Transmission can occur through air, water, glass, and other transparent materials. Transmission typically does not occur through opaque, or solid-colored, matter.

In the case of older television signals, the mountains that surrounded Mahanoy City prevented the transmission of radio waves from the source to home TV sets. Cable TV transmits the signal as electricity through cables rather than as waves through the air.

Multiple Choice

Which material is most likely to allow the transmission of light waves?

• air

• coffee

• mountain

• concrete

Hotspot

Which of the models below represents the reflection of a wave?

Hotspot

Which of the models below represents the absorption of a wave?

​X-rays are images formed by passing X-ray waves through an object onto a photographic plate. In an X-ray, materials that absorb the waves appear white, while materials that transmit the waves appear dark.

Multiple Choice

Which material is the most likely to absorb X-rays?

• muscle

• quarters

• air

• cotton

Draw

Destructive interference occurs when the amplitudes of the waves that meet become shorter.

Circle the correct one.

Match

Match the word to the example.

• absorption

• interference

• reflection

• transmission

the process of taking in light or sound

the combination of two or more waves

the bouncing back of light or sound

the passing of light through a medium

• the process of taking in light or sound

• the combination of two or more waves

• the bouncing back of light or sound

• the passing of light through a medium

​Enter the Interactive in Edio on page 4

Do you understand?

reflection occurs when light rays bounce off of a surface

absorption occurs when light waves neither reflect from nor transmit through an object

interference occurs when waves meet

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