Lesson Notes By Weeks and Term v4 - SHS 2
WAVES
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WAVES
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Subject: Physics
Class: SHS 2
Term: 1st Term
Week: 18
Grade code: 2.2.2.LI.3
Strand code: 2
Sub-strand code: 2
Content standard code: 2.2.2.CS.1
Indicator code: 2.2.2.LI.3
Theme: ENERGY
Subtheme: WAVES
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Waves are all around us in Ghana. We experience them when we see ripples in a bucket of water after a raindrop falls, when we listen to highlife music on the radio, when we see the sea waves at Labadi or Cape Coast beach, and even in the light from the sun that helps our crops grow. Understanding the properties of these waves is the first step to understanding how so much of our world works, from telecommunications (like our MTN and Vodafone networks) to medical technology. In this lesson, we will learn the language of waves by defining and calculating their fundamental properties.
What is a Wave? A wave is a disturbance that travels through a medium, transferring energy from one point to another without transferring matter.
Think about throwing a small stone into a calm pond. You see ripples move outwards. The water itself doesn't travel across the pond; it just moves up and down. What travels is the energy from the stone's impact. This is the essence of a wave. Visualising a Wave We often represent a transverse wave with a sinusoidal shape, like the one below. This shape helps us understand its properties.
*(Teacher should draw this on the board and label it as the explanation proceeds)*
``` ^ Displacement | | Crest | .---. | / \ / A | \ / | \ \ / ---|- - - - - - - - - - - - -> Distance / Time (Equilibrium Position) | \ / \ | \ / `---' | `-' Trough | | |