PhET Simulation: Waves Intro

Using another one of the excellent simulations from PhET Interactive Simulations, your students will be able to investigate the properties of longitudinal and transverse waves.

After completing this lab students should be able to: a) make waves with water, sounds and light and see how they are related, b) discuss wave properties using the appropriate terms, c) explain how changing the frequency and amplitude affects the characteristics of a wave and d) determine a method to measure and calculate the speed of a wave.

This PhET online lab contains three separate sections, one for each of the three types of waves: water, sound and light. The learning objectives for each section are different.

1. The water waves section focuses on becoming familiar with the basic characteristics of transverse waves and the terms we use to describe waves such as wavelength, amplitude, crest, trough, frequency and period. Students learn how changing the frequency and amplitude affects wavelength and other characteristics of the waves.

2. The sound waves section looks at how a speaker creates a longitudinal wave, how energy is transferred through a medium by this type of wave, the relationship between the frequency and period of a wave and how to calculate wave speed.

3. In the light waves section students will measure the wavelength and period of waves of different colors of light and then use this information to calculate the frequency of light waves and the speed of light. They should then be able to summarize the relationships between the period, frequency and wavelength of light waves.

You may want students to become familiar with the basic terms used to describe waves and their motion before they begin the simulation. Therefore, I have included a worksheet that students can complete before they get started. Students could also complete this worksheet during or after the simulation.

For this activity your students will use one of the simulations from PhET Interactive Simulations. The simulation is called Waves Intro (HTML5). PhET simulations incorporate research based, student centered activities that are fun and easy to use. All of the PhET simulations are available from their website: PhET Interactive Simulations