Physics - Intro to waves

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Light can be used for digital communications - for example, in Morse code and in CD players. Light consists of transverse waves in which the electromagnetic vibrations are at 90º to the direction of travel. The speed of a wave can be calculated using its frequency and wavelength. Lasers produce intense narrow beams of light.

Waves are vibrations that transfer energy from place to place without matter - solid, liquid or gas - being transferred.

In transverse waves, the oscillations (vibrations) are at right angles to the direction of travel and energy transfer. Water waves are transverse waves.

Light and other types of electromagnetic radiation are transverse waves. All types of electromagnetic waves travel at the same speed through a vacuum, such as through space.

(http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/images/74_amplitude__wavelength.gif)

The wavelength of a wave is the distance between a point on one wave and the same point on the next wave. It is often easiest to measure this from the crest of one wave to the crest of the next wave, but it doesn't matter where as long as…

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