A2 Applied Science - Working Waves - General Waves

General Waves:

Period is the time for one oscillation (wave per second)
Frequency is the waves per second

Transverse waves go across 
Longitudinal waves go along

What do waves do?

At a barrier: they reflect or absorbed
At a transparent material: they refract or transmit or reflected
At a hole: they diffract
Transverse waves only: polarisation (direction of oscillation is only in one direction)

All waves reflect, refract and diffract 

Reflection is where waves bounce at an obstacle 
Refraction is where waves slow down and change direction in a new material. 
Diffraction is where waves spread out through a small gap. 

Transverse waves oscillate at right angles to the direction of travel. This gives many different directions for the oscillations. 
Unpolarised waves are a mix of all directions of oscillation. Polarised waves only have one direction of oscillation.

Radio waves can…