Examples of wave in the following topics:
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- Interference and diffraction are terms that describe a wave interacting with something that changes its amplitude, such as another wave.
- In physics, interference is a phenomenon in which two waves superimpose to form a resultant wave of greater or lower amplitude.
- Interference effects can be observed with all types of waves, including light, radio, acoustic, and surface water waves.
- When the two waves overlap, the net displacement at a particular point is the sum of the displacements of the individual waves.
- Diffraction occurs with all waves, including sound waves, water waves, and electromagnetic waves such as visible light, X-rays, and radio waves.
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- In many cases, the properties of light can be explained as a wave, as was shown in Young's double-slit experiment.
- In this section, we will focus on the wave-like properties of light.
- While you will later learn about wave/particle duality (how light behaves as both a wave and a particle at the same time), here we shall discuss the wave nature of light and the experimental effects of this behavior.
- Wave motion arises when a periodic disturbance of some kind is propagated through a medium.
- Discuss how wave motion arises and its measurable properties, noting the conlcusions of Young's double slit experiment
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- Thus it became apparent that light has both wave-like and particle-like properties.
- In his 1924 PhD thesis, de Broglie sought to expand this wave-particle duality to all material particles with linear momentum.
- In 1926, Erwin Schrödinger published an equation describing how a matter wave should evolve—the matter wave equivalent of Maxwell's equations—and used it to derive the energy spectrum of hydrogen.
- Therefore, the presence of any diffraction effects by matter demonstrated the wave-like nature of matter.
- Propagation of de Broglie waves in 1 dimension (the real part of the complex amplitude is blue and the imaginary part is green; top: plane wave, bottom: wave packet.).
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- The above equation establishes a direct relationship between the second derivative of the the wave function and the kinetic energy of the system.
- The best way to visualize the time-independent Schrödinger equation is as a stationary snapshot of a wave at particular moment in time.
- The frequency of the oscillations through space and time are given by the wave number, $k$ , and the angular frequency, $\omega$ respectively.
- because wavefunctions based on sine waves will have Ψ(x) = 0 values when x = o and x = L, while those wave functions which include cosine terms will not.
- Describe the features of the wave function for the particle in a box.
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- Wavelength is inversely proportional to wave frequency; hence, gamma rays have very short wavelengths that are a fraction of the size of atoms, whereas other wavelengths can be as long as the universe.
- Photon energy is directly proportional to the wave frequency, so gamma ray photons have the highest energy (around a billion electron volts), while radio wave photons have very low energy (around a femto-electron volt).
- Whenever electromagnetic waves exist in a medium with matter, their wavelength is decreased.
- Wave number = 1/wavelength in cm Speed of light = wavelength x frequency Energy = Planck's constant x frequency.
- Calculate frequency or photon energy, identify the three physical properties of electromagnetic waves
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- From the wave perspective, all forms of EM radiation may be described in terms of their wavelength and frequency.
- Wavelength is the distance from one wave peak to the next, which can be measured in meters.
- Frequency is the number of waves that pass by a given point each second.
- The wave model cannot account for something known as the photoelectric effect.
- If light acted only as a wave, then there should be a continuous rainbow created by the prism.
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- An atomic orbital is a mathematical function that describes the wave-like behavior of either one electron or a pair of electrons in an atom.
- In quantum mechanics, electron configurations of atoms are described as wave functions.
- In a mathematical sense, these wave functions are the basic functions that describe the a given atom's electrons.
- Orbital wave functions are modified in chemical reactions—the electron cloud shape changes—according to the type of atoms participating in the chemical bond.
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- Because of the wave-like character of matter, the orbital corresponds to a standing-wave pattern in 3-dimensional space that we can often represent more clearly in a 2-dimensional cross section.
- The quantity that is varying ("waving") is a number denoted by ψ (psi), whose value varies from point to point according to the wavefunction for that particular orbital.
- Orbitals of all types are simply mathematical functions that describe particular standing-wave patterns that can be plotted on a graph but have no physical reality of their own.
- The phase of an orbital is a direct consequence of the wave-like properties of electrons.
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- It has since become clear, however, that the uncertainty principle is inherent in the properties of all wave-like systems and that it arises in quantum mechanics simply due to the matter-wave nature of all quantum objects.
- Applications are for developing extremely low noise technology, such as that required in gravitational-wave interferometers.
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- Radioactive decay occurs when an unstable atomic nucleus emits particles or light waves.
- Radioactive decay occurs when an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by emitting energy in the form of emitted particles or electromagnetic waves, called radiation.
- Some decay reactions release energy in the form of electromagnetic waves called gamma rays.