How does the use and study of waves affect societal well-being?: Waves Unit Reflection

Through this unit we learned about different kinds of waves in the mind map below it shows the topics we covered:

How does the use and study of waves affect societal well-being?

The use and study of waves affect societal well-being because they are all around us. If we did not know about them we wouldn't know their impacts, uses and dangers. It is always important to learn about our surroundings and since waves, as I said before, are all around us they are important to know about. Without learning about waves we wouldn't be able to use them, which would be unfortunate because waves have many uses. Through this unit we learned a lot about the different types of waves, their uses, their dangers and what they are.

What are waves?

A wave is a disturbance that travels through a medium from one place to another. What is a medium? A medium is a material that a wave travels through and it is not to be confused with matter. When a wave travels in transfers energy from one location to another. A wave is caused when a disturbance causes particles to move.

Nature of Waves

Through this unit we learned a lot about the traits and parts of waves. The top or highest point of a wave is called the crest and the lowest point is called the through. The length between each wave is the wavelength and the height of the wave is called the amplitude. Along with this the amount of waves that come by in a certain period of time is the frequency. We also learned that elasticity, density and temperature effect the speed and other characteristics of a wave.

Types of waves

Another thing we learnt about is the types of waves. These include:

Longitudinal Waves - A wave in which the particles move in a parallel direction to the wave.

Transverse Waves - In which the particles move perpendicular to the direction of the wave.

Seismic Waves - When a rock is under great stress and then it breaks, this is the type of wave it emits.

Primary Waves- A wave that can travel through solids and liquids.

Surface Waves - A wave in which the particles of the medium move is a circular motion.

Secondary Waves - A wave that can travel through solids but not liquids.

Mechanical Waves - A wave that needs a medium to travel.

Electromagnetic Waves - Waves that do not need a medium to travel through, electromagnetic waves include x-rays, infrared, UV, etc.

Sound Waves - A wave made up of compression and rarefactions in which sound is transferred from one place to another.

Interactions of waves

Waves interact in different ways creating a stronger wave, a weaker wave or a wave that is simply the same. Some interactions of waves include anitnodes and nodes, rarefaction, resonance , diffraction, and interference (constructive and destructive). These types of interactions of waves can happen between water waves and sound waves.

What have I learnt during this unit?

A learnt a lot about different kinds of waves, interactions of waves, uses of waves (infrared waves such as cooking, Sound waves for music), dangers of waves (earthquakes, tsunamis, etc.), nature of waves, and what waves are.

What did I like?

Through this unit my favorite thing was the seismograph lab, this was because we got to be creative and to build a seismograph. This lab was to show us the importance of a seismograph (which is to be able to predict an earthquake to prevent disaster). I think though the reason I enjoyed this project so much was because it was quite a creative lab.

What would I change for next year's 7th grade?

I would change the fact that we go very in depth with water waves and ground waves but not as in depth with sound and light waves. So maybe going more in depth with these two categories would be good so we could fully understand waves as a whole.

This is a video covering a certain part of this unit I found interesting (characteristics of waves)