Waves of Heat

Honors Physics reviewed the basic nature of temperature and then brought heat and internal energy into the picture. Remember, heat is energy in transit – we call it it heat when energy moves between two objects that differ in temperature. Not all objects respond the same when they receive or donate heat energy – they vary in the amount of temperature change they experience as a consequence of the gain/loss of heat. This property of matter – specific heat – states a substance’s ability to demonstrate a temperature change when heat energy is given to it or taken away from it. The conservation of energy problems you have for homework likely won’t give you any difficulty, but the calorimetry set is a bit tougher. We’ll review all these problems and the calorimetry process tomorrow before sailing on to latent heat.

Physical Science B completed their discussion of wave types and began to examine features of waves. You should be able to contrast and give examples of mechanical/electromagnetic waves and transverse/longitudinal waves. Also, be clear as to the physical features of a wave – crest, trough, amplitude, wavelength, and the properties of period and frequency. We will work with wave speed tomorrow and make sure that everyone has practice working with the wave speed formula.

Physical Science E conducted a lab investigation on the properties of transverse waves. Waves were created through the simple harmonic motion of a pendulum system and wavelength, amplitude, period and frequency were measured and wave speed was calculated. Students had to work hard to get a clean wave trice, but all groups accomplished the task nicely. Tomorrow, we will look in more detail at the properties of waves and practice more with the calculation of wave speed.

Physics F and G were subject to exams today and will move further tomorrow into the area of heat. We’ve touched on temperature already, so we’ll be starting off with heat energy and its effects on internal energy.

Homework

Honors Physics A: Practice 10B and 10C
Physical Science B: Read section 14.2 in the text and complete the Section Review (p.471) and the Practice on p.468
Physical Science E: Complete lab write ups and Types of Waves worksheet
Physics F and G: Read section 10.2 in the textbook and answer the Section Review questions (p. 370), as well as the Chapter Review items #12-19