CHAPTER – 7

RAYS AND WAVES

NOTES
General wave properties

Waves transfer energy without transferring matter; particles oscillate about a fixed point.

Amplitude – the distance from the equilibrium position to the maximum displacement
Wavelength – the distance between a point on one wave and the same point on the next wave
Frequency – the number of waves that pass a single point per second
Speed – the distance travelled by a wave each second

● Speed is related to frequency and wavelength

by: 𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒆𝒅 = 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒚 × 𝒘𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒕𝒉 𝒗 = 𝒇𝝀
Types of waves:
● Transverse waves
○ Has peaks and troughs en.wikibooks.org
○ Vibrations are at right angles to the direction of travel
○ An example is light ●
Longitudinal waves
○ Consists of compressions (particles pushed together) and rarefactions
(particles moved apart)
○ Vibrations are in the same direction as the direction of travel
○ An example is sound

A wavefront is a surface containing points affected in the

same way by a wave at a given time such as crests or
troughs.

Reflection:
● Waves reflect off smooth, plane surfaces rather than
getting absorbed
○ Angle of incidence = angle of reflection
● Rough surfaces scatter the light in all directions, so
they appear matte and unreflective
● Frequency, wavelength, and speed are all unchanged

Refraction:
● The speed of a wave changes when it enters a new
medium
● If the wave enters a more optically dense medium, its
speed decreases and it bends towards the normal
● If the wave enters a less optically dense medium, its reddit.com
speed increases and it bends away from the normal
● In all cases, the frequency stays the same but the
wavelength changes.

Diffraction:
● Waves spread out when they go around the sides of
an obstacle or through a gap
● The narrower the gap or the greater the
wavelength, the more the diffraction
 ● Frequency, wavelength, and speed are all unchanged

Light
Reflection
● When light is reflected off a plane mirror, it forms an
image with these characteristics:
○ Upright
○ Same distance from the mirror as the object
○ Same size
○ Virtual
Refraction
● Refraction can be shown when light is passed through a
glass slab at an angle to its normal
● When light enters a more optically dense medium, the Denser medium
angle of incidence (the angle between the incident ray
and the normal) is greater than the angle of refraction
(the angle between the refracted ray and the normal).
The opposite is true when light enters a less optically
dense medium.
● The refractive index n of a medium is defined as the ratio between the speed of light
in a vacuum and the speed of light in the medium:𝑛 = 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑙𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡
𝑖𝑛 𝑣𝑎𝑐𝑢𝑢𝑚
𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑙𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑢𝑚
● Snell's law relates the angle of incidence and the angle of refraction to the refractive
index by: 𝑛 = 𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝑖 where i is the angle of incidence and r is the angle of refraction.
𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝑟

Total internal reflection:

● At a certain angle of incidence called the critical angle, the light
will travel along the boundary between the two media.
● Total internal reflection occurs when the angle of incidence is
greater than the critical angle and the light reflects back into the
medium.
● For total internal reflection to occur, the light must also be
travelling from a more optically dense medium into a less
optically dense medium (most common example is glass to air).
● The critical angle can be related to the refractive index by:
1
𝑛=
𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝑐
Optical fibres:

● An optical fibre is a long thin rod

of glass surrounded by cladding
which uses total internal
reflection to transfer information
by light, even when bent.
● Extensive use in medicine
(endoscopes, inside-body flexible
cameras) and communications
(high speed data transfer).

Converging lens:

● A converging lens is a transparent block which brings light rays together at a point called
the principal focus by utilising refraction.
● The focal length is the distance between the centre of the lens and the principal focus.
● The image formed by a converging lens can be either real or virtual.
○ Real images are formed when the distance of the object from the centre of the
lens is greater than the focal length. They are images where light actually
converges to a position and can be projected onto a screen.
○ Virtual images are formed when the distance of the object from the centre of
the lens is smaller than the focal length. They are images where light only
appears to have converged and they cannot be projected onto a screen.
● You can draw ray diagrams for real images (shown on the left below) and virtual images
(shown on the right below).

● The image formed is enlarged/same size/diminished and upright/inverted.

○ The image on the left above is diminished and inverted.
○ The image on the right above is enlarged and upright.
● Converging lenses are used in magnifying glasses and binoculars (to enlarge the image).
Dispersion

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

up into its constituent colours. This happens because the
different colours travel at different speeds in the glass, so
they refract by different amounts.
● The seven colours in order of decreasing
wavelength are red, orange, yellow, green, blue,
indigo and violet (ROYGBIV).
● The greater the wavelength, the slower the speed
in glass and the greater the refractive index.

Light of a single frequency is described as monochromatic.

Electromagnetic spectrum

Properties of electromagnetic waves:

● Transverse waves
● Do not need a medium
● All electromagnetic waves travel with the same high speed of 3.0 x 108 ms-1 in a vacuum
and approximately the same speed in air.

You need to learn the main groups of the electromagnetic spectrum in order of wavelength.

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As speed is constant for all electromagnetic waves, as wavelength decreases, frequency must
increase. The higher the frequency of an EM wave, the greater its energy.

Uses of electromagnetic waves:

● Radio waves are used for radio and television communications. They have a long
wavelength and are reflected by the ionosphere.
● Microwaves are used for satellite communication and in microwave oven. They pass
through the ionosphere and penetrate deep into food.
● Infrared radiation is used in remote controllers and infrared cameras.
 ● Visible light is used in fibre optics.
● Ultraviolet light is used in tanning beds.
● X-rays are used in medical imaging and in security as they can penetrate material easily. ●
Gamma radiation is used in medical treatment due to its high energy.

Hazards:
● Too much exposure to ultraviolet light skin increases the risk of skin cancer.
○ Sun cream prevents over-exposure in summer.
● X-rays and gamma rays are ionising radiation that can cause mutations leading to cancer.
○ Exposure to these kinds of radiation should be minimised.
● Microwaves can cause internal heating of body tissues. ● Infrared radiation can cause skin
burns.