StudyBrixFree worksheets, study guides and courses

Physics · Grades 7–10

Wave vocabulary and energy transfer

Distinguish amplitude, wavelength, frequency and particle motion.

Make a worksheet

Learn the idea

Wave

A travelling disturbance can transfer energy without carrying the medium bodily from source to receiver.

Amplitude

Amplitude is the maximum displacement from equilibrium, not crest-to-trough height.

Wavelength

Wavelength is the spacing between successive points with the same phase, such as neighbouring crests.

Frequency and period

Frequency counts cycles per second; period gives seconds per cycle. They are reciprocals.

Worked examples

Which distance defines amplitude?

Amplitude is maximum displacement from equilibrium.

Equilibrium to crest

A wave has frequency 4 Hz and wavelength 3 m. Find speed.

v = fλ = 4 × 3 = 12 m/s.

12 m/s

Check your understanding

  1. A source makes 20 complete cycles in 5 s. Find frequency.

  2. A frequency is 5 Hz. Find period.

  3. Why is saying the water itself travels across the entire ocean with a wave misleading?

Answers and marking notes

Answers and marking notes
  1. 4 Hz

    20/5 = 4 cycles per second.

  2. 0.2 s

    T = 1/f = 1/5 = 0.2 s.

  3. In a simple wave model, local particles oscillate while the disturbance transfers energy.

    Credit local motion versus wave propagation; complex currents are separate.

Further reading and review references

These are reference links, not copied exercises, institutional endorsement or proof of independent review.

Independent educational review required. Grade bands are approximate; these are not officially aligned curricula.