MODULE 1: WAVE MODEL reconstruct the behavior of other kinds of waves as

well.
Wave – is a disturbance that moves through a medium
while the medium (on average) remains at rest.

Traveling waves will move through essentially any

medium that: (1) seeks to restore itself to equilibrium
in response to a disturbance but (2) cannot restore that
equilibrium instantly.
A perturbation of the medium’s equilibrium Wave’s Phase Speed – the speed at which the crests
creates traveling disturbance waves that move of a traveling sinusoidal wave move.
through the medium away from the disturbance’s Sound – in physics can refer to almost any
source. mechanical wave moving through a medium.
Transverse Wave – causes the medium to displace in Commonly thought of as moving through the air,
a direction perpendicular to the direction of the wave’s sound waves can and do move through other gases,
motion. liquids, and solids.

Longitudinal Wave – involves a displacement of the

medium back and forth along the direction of the
wave’s motion. It involves compression and
rarefaction of the medium.
Waves on the surface of a body of water – are Approximate Wavelength: Wave Intensity
somewhat peculiar in that as a wave passes, a given
“piece” of water actually moves in a small vertical
circle or ellipse around its equilibrium position.
Mechanical Waves – carry not only information that
a disturbance has occurred but also energy (Waves DOPPLER EFFECT
carry energy). Doppler effect –a phenomenon that results in a shift
SINUSOIDAL WAVE MODEL in a wave’s observed frequency when the wave’s
source is moving relative to the wave’s medium.
Any wave can be mathematically represented by a
“wiggle function” w(t, x, y, z) that somehow
quantifies the medium’s disturbance at every position
in space and at every instant of time.
Sinusoidal Wave – is a model wiggle function that is
extraordinarily useful in physics, partly because
realistic waves are often approximately sinusoidal. It e
carries an average energy proportional to the square of
its amplitude.
Fourier’s Theorem – states that we can
mathematically treat any wave (even a pulse wave) as
an appropriately chosen sum of sinusoidal waves. This MODULE 2: STANDING WAVES &
means that if we understand how sinusoidal waves RESONANCE
behave in a given situation, we can (if needed)
THE SUPERPOSITION PRINCIPLE
Superposition Principles – applies to any linear
system, including algebraic equations, linear
differential equations, and systems of equations of
those forms.
Linear Waves – are waves that obey the superposition
principle and can pass through each other without
modification. They also do not collide and affect each
other’s motion.
Nonlinear Waves – are waves that do not obey the
superposition principle.
REFLECTION RESONANCE

Reflection – a process by which a wave, whether Resonance – the tendency to react strongly to
light, sound, infrared, or radio waves, hits an object disturbances at normal-mode frequencies but ignore
and bounces off it. disturbances at other frequencies is a general feature
of oscillating systems.
Boundary – in the context of wave is somewhere
where the medium’s characteristics suddenly change
in such a way as to change the phase speed of waves MODULE 3: INTERFERENCE &
moving across the boundary. DIFFRACTION
Standing Waves (Stationary Waves) – two waves of TWO-DIMENSIONAL WAVES
the same frequency, wavelength, and amplitude travel
in opposite directions and interfere, a new pattern will Two-dimensional Waves – waves that exist in two
be established due to the superposition of the reflected dimensions. Expresses the power per unit length in
waves with the original ones. W/m.
Node – the point on the standing wave that always Line Wave – a sinusoidal wave in water whose
undergoes complete destructive interference and with successive crests form parallel (and essentially
zero amplitude. infinite) straight lines.
Antinode – the point between two nodes at which the Circular Wave – a sinusoidal wave in water whose
maximum amplitude occurs. successive crests form outwardly moving concentric
circles around some small disturbing source.
Natural Frequencies/Resonant Frequencies – the
frequencies at which large amplitude standing waves SIMPLE DIFFRACTION
are produced. It is also a particular frequency at which
Diffraction – the bending of waves around the edge
objects vibrate on their own.
or corner of a barrier. The amount of diffraction is
Fundamental Frequencies – is the lowest frequency dependent on the wavelength and the size of the
of a periodic waveform. opening barrier.
Harmonic Series – a set of frequencies at which the – explains qualitatively why one can hear a person
wave naturally vibrates. talking around a corner even when the person is not
visible.
Two-Slit Interference of Wave
Constructive Interference – wave crests from each
slit will arrive at the same time, and the sum will be a
wave with twice the amplitude of the waves from each
slit.
Destructive Interference – a crest from one slit will • Compton effect (particle-like collisions between
arrive at the same time as a trough from the other, and extremely high-frequency electromagnetic waves and
the sum of the waves will be zero. electrons).
Two-Slit Interference of Light – was interpreted by • Quantum mechanics arose in 1926 from efforts to
Thomas Young in the 1800s, as the bright and dark make sense of these results in a manner still consistent
spots on the screen as positions where light waves with the experimental results that seemed to justify
interfere constructively or destructively, respectively. Maxwell’s wave model.
• The successful unification of quantum mechanics,
Maxwell’s electromagnetic field theory, and
relativity led in the 1940s to the first relativistic
quantum field theory, quantum electrodynamics
(QED), the physics community’s currently accepted
MODULE 4: THE PARTICLE NATURE OF model for light.
LIGHT
PHOTOELECTRIC EFFECT
A SHORT HISTORY OF LIGHT
Photoelectric Effect – the phenomenon in which
Development of the Wave Model of Light electrically charged particles are released from or
• In 1704, Sir Isaac Newton wrote the book about within a material when it absorbs electromagnetic
light, Optiks, that described a set of optical radiation. Often defined as the ejection of electrons
experiments he performed and the conclusion he drew from a metal plate when light falls on it.
from the experiments. • In 1887, Hertz first observed that ultraviolet light
• James Clerk Maxwell provided a solid foundation shining on metallic electrodes made it easier for a
for that wave model in the early 1860s in the course of spark to jump between them.
developing a comprehensive mathematical theory of • J. J. Thomson and Hertz’s student Philipp Von
electric and magnetic fields. Lenard established in 1902 that many kinds of metal
• Heinrich Hertz and others provided a firm surfaces emit electrons when illuminated by light.
experimental foundation for Maxwell’s theory by • Von Lenard’s qualitative observations of the
creating and studying electromagnetic waves with phenomenon provided enough substance for Einstein
wavelengths outside the visible range. to propose a particle model of light in 1905 to explain
• At the close of the 1800s, therefore, the physics the observations.
community had thoroughly accepted Maxwell’s • Robert Millikan strongly disbelieved Einstein’s
picture of visible light as electromagnetic waves particle model and almost immediately set out to
having a certain wavelength range. disprove it. His brilliant decade-long effort, instead,
• Einstein developed the theory of special relativity in quantitatively confirmed every prediction of
1905. Einstein’s model.

Development of the Particle Model of Light Cathode – something that acts as a source of
electrons.
• In 1901, Max Planck showed that modeling a
glowing hot object as emitting light energy in discrete Anode – something that collects electrons.
bundles (instead of continually as waves) resolved • An electron’s kinetic energy can be expressed in
nasty problems physicists were having to match the units of electron volts (eV).
observed emissions from such objects with predictions
based on the wave model.
• Photoelectric effect (the phenomenon of electron
emission from illuminated metal surfaces), studies of Predictions of Wave Model
the emission and absorption of light by gas atoms.
• In summary, the conservation of energy and the - h is the Planck’s constant (6.63 x 10^-34 J*s
basic principle that energy is spread continuously = 4.15 x 10^-15 eV*s).
throughout a wave implies that: - W is the work function for the metal
o The rate at which electrons are ejected from an - hc/ʎ = hf is the photon’s energy
illuminated metal should be proportional to the
intensity of the illuminating light.
o At normal intensities, there should be a significant
delay between the metal’s illumination and emission
of the first electrons.
What Actually Observed
Intensity of light – is defined to be the amount of
• Actually, performing the experiments yields the energy it delivers to a unit area in a unit time.
following results:
o The number of electrons ejected from a metal
Whereas:
illuminated with monochromatic light is proportional
to the intensity of that light. • If the light has a fixed wavelength, the energy
carried by each photon is the same, so the light
o Electrons are ejected essentially instantly after
intensity is directly proportional to the number of
illumination begins (with delays smaller than
photons delivered per unit area per unit time.
nanoseconds), no matter how low the intensity is (!).
• If each ejected electron was hit by a single photon,
o If the frequency of the illuminating light is below a
then the number of ejected electrons should be
certain value, no electrons are ejected, no matter how
directly proportional to the intensity of the light at a
intense the light is! (Physicists call this metal-specific
given frequency.
value the metal’s cutoff frequency.)
Einstein’s model is completely inconsistent with
o For a fixed frequency of illuminating light, the
experimental results that demonstrate the wave
electrons’ maximum kinetic energy is independent of
nature of light.
intensity!
o Above a metal’s cutoff frequency, the electrons’
maximum kinetic energy is directly proportional to the
frequency of the illuminating light, with the same
slope for all metals
PHOTON MODEL OF LIGHT
• Albert Einstein in 1905 proposed a simple
alternative to the wave model of light that explained
these qualitative observations and predicted the other
observations listed earlier. These predictions were
experimentally verified by Robert Millikan and
described in a paper that he published in 1916.
• Einstein won the Nobel Prize in 1921, not for
special relativity nor general relativity but “for his
services to theoretical physics and especially for his
discovery [sic] of the photoelectric effect.”
E = hf
K = hf - W = hc/ʎ - W
- f is the frequency of light