Waves Quiz
Questions: 16 · 10 minutes
1. Water waves pass through an opening whose width is similar to their wavelength. What is most likely to happen beyond the opening?
The waves stop because the opening absorbs them
The waves continue only as a perfectly narrow beam
The waves reverse direction toward their source
The waves spread noticeably through diffraction
2. A student shouts toward a distant wall and hears an echo. Which wave behavior produces the echo?
Refraction
Reflection
Diffraction
Polarization
3. A sound wave moves from air into water. Its frequency remains unchanged. What determines that unchanged frequency?
The sound’s speed in water
The vibration rate of the source
The sound’s wavelength in water
The density of the receiving material alone
4. A wave completes 12 cycles in 3 seconds. What is its frequency?
4 Hz
3 Hz
0.25 Hz
36 Hz
5. Why can ordinary sound not travel through a vacuum?
Sound requires particles in a medium to transmit vibrations
A vacuum reflects every sound wave
Its wavelength becomes infinitely short
Its frequency becomes too high to detect
6. Which statement about electromagnetic waves in a vacuum is correct?
Higher-frequency waves always travel faster
Longer wavelengths travel faster than shorter wavelengths
Only visible light can travel without a medium
All electromagnetic waves travel at the same speed
7. A wave has a frequency of 5 Hz and a wavelength of 2 m. What is its speed?
7 m/s
2.5 m/s
10 m/s
0.4 m/s
8. A sounding ambulance approaches a stationary listener. Compared with the emitted frequency, which frequency does the listener detect?
A lower frequency because the sound loses speed
A higher frequency because arriving wavefronts are closer together
The same frequency because source motion affects only amplitude
Zero frequency when the ambulance reaches the listener
9. At one instant, two points on a sinusoidal traveling wave are separated by exactly one wavelength. How are their oscillations related?
They are in phase at corresponding points in their cycles
They are half a cycle out of phase
They must have different frequencies
They are one-quarter of a cycle out of phase
10. Straight water waves enter a shallower region at an angle and change direction because their speed changes. What behavior is this?
Constructive interference
Reflection
Refraction
Dispersion
11. Which observation identifies a transverse wave?
The medium moves in the same direction as the wave travels
The medium remains permanently displaced after the wave passes
The wave transfers matter from its source to its destination
The medium moves perpendicular to the direction of wave travel
12. What does the amplitude of a wave measure?
The distance between two successive crests
The number of complete cycles produced each second
The maximum displacement from the equilibrium position
The total distance traveled by the wave source
13. Two equal pulses overlap, with one displaced upward and the other equally downward. What happens at complete overlap?
Their amplitudes add to twice the original height
Their displacements momentarily cancel through destructive interference
Both pulses permanently disappear
Their speeds become zero after they separate
14. Which description correctly defines wavelength?
The distance between corresponding points on successive cycles
The time required for one complete cycle
The number of cycles passing a point each second
The maximum displacement of the medium
15. What occurs when two identical wave crests meet in phase?
Their frequencies both fall to zero
They permanently exchange their wavelengths
They combine to produce a larger displacement
They pass through each other without any temporary superposition
16. In a standing wave, what is a node?
One complete traveling-wave cycle
A point with the greatest oscillation amplitude
The location where the wave permanently gains energy
A point that remains at zero displacement