Color Physics @Hampshire, Day 8

On Day 8, we investigated transverse waves.

• Students did some prep work at home by playing with a PhET interactive simulation  exploring qualitatively various properties of a wave on a string, and recording their observations.

  

• In class, we introduced a transverse sine wave and students worked in groups to come up with a comprehensive list of properties of a sine wave needed to describe it to grandma. This led us to the concepts of amplitude, wavelength, period, frequency, and speed, as well as their respective appropriate units. We subsequently practiced finding the values of these properties for three animated waves I made using Grapher.
• At the end of the class, as a taste of things to come, students briefly made waves with slinkies.