Year 11 Physics Notes

Unit 1.1: The Wave Model

The Wave Model

The wavefront can either be the crest or trough and is perpendicular to the
direction of the wave's velocity.
Two waves are in phase if at an instant they have the same displacement
and velocity
The amplitude is the maximum displacement from the undisturbed state.
The frequency is the no. of waves that passed a fixed point per second.
The velocity of a wave is how fast the wave transfers energy away.
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The period is the time it takes a single wave to pass a fixed point
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Unit 1.2: Waves Carry Energy

When a wave travels through a medium, the medium does not move
forward with the disturbance, the particles simply move up and down
perpendicular to the wave direction. It is simply a transfer of energy.
Waves may travel in one, two or three dimensions e.g. slinky or rope
waves are 1D, ripple waves are 2D and sound waves are 3D(radiates in a
sphere from the origin)

Unit
1.3:
Types of Waves
Waves are categorised according to how they transfer energy:

Mechanical waves involve transfer of energy through a material by the

motion of particles of the medium. The particles oscillate or vibrate but
return to the same place as they were before.
Electromagnetic waves don't require a medium to travel through.

Mechanical waves are classified as transverse or longitudinal:

In transverse waves, particles of the medium vibrate perpendicular to the

direction of wave propagation
In longitudinal waves, the particles of the medium oscillate in the same
direction of the wave propagation

Electromagnetic waves are all transverse waves because the alternating

electrical and magnetic fields are perpendicular to each other and the wave
propagation.

EM waves travel at the speed of light and can be reflected, refracted and
carry information as codes
They are self-propagating, that is the magnetic field produced induces an
electric field and vice versa etc.
EM waves can travel immense distances and create an electrical response in
the medium they come in contact with

Mobile Phones

Mobile phones have microphones that change sound waves into

electrical signals.
These electrical signals are digitised (converted into 1s and 0s) and
transmitted as radio waves to base stations.
The base station accepts and transmits the radio signals from antennae
in three adjacent hexagonal areas called cells.
Each base station is connected to a switching centre by cable network
carrying signals as electrical impulses produced by radio waves
interacting with the aerial.
If the telephone call is between a mobile and a fixed telephone, the
signal is transferred through copper-wire networks as electrical impulses
and possibly via optical fibre networks if it is a long distance away to a
closer switching centre. The receiving telephone will then convert it back
into sound energy.
If the call is between two mobile phones, the signal is transferred to a
closer switching centre and fed to a base station which broadcasts the
electrical impulses as radio waves. The radio signal is converted back
into electrical impulses and into sound.

Unit 2.1: Sound - Vibrations in a Medium

All sound waves are vibrations in a medium that result in pressure

variations within that medium.
The higher the volume of the sound, the greater the amplitude and vice
versa.
The higher the pitch of the sound, the faster the rate of vibration of the
object (frequency) and vice versa.
In the zones of high pressure, the particles of the medium are pushed
closer together, this is a compression.
In the zones of low pressure, the particles of the medium are spread
further apart, this is a rarefaction.

Unit 2.4: Echoes - Reflections of Sound

An echo is a repeated sound created by the reflection of sound waves

from a surface.
When an echo bounces back from a solid surface, such as a cliff face or a
brick wall, you dont hear the full sound.
If you are close to the reflecting surface, you probably won't detect an
echo as the original sound drowns it out.
If you are a significant distance away from the reflecting surface, you will
hear more of the original sound bounce back.
Sonar technology works by emitting short-wavelength, high frequency
waves that bounce back from objects. The time taken to return to the
source can be used to determine the distance from the object.

Unit 2.5: Sound and the Principle of Superposition

Sound waves from separate sources may interfere with each other to
produce a sound of higher or lower amplitude by adding the amplitudes
together.
If two waves are in phase the amplitudes are added to make a louder sound.
This is called superposition.
If two waves with the same amplitude are out of phase by 180 degrees,
they cancel out resulting in no sound. This is called annulment.
If two waves are out of phase, the amplitude will be less than either of the
original waves. Conversely, if they are in phase the amplitude will be
greater than either of the original waves.

Some uses of this phenomenon include:

o Production of sound waves that are out of phase by 180 to reduce
sound emitted by heavy machines
o Noise cancelling technology in headphones.
Interference of waves can also produce waves with different frequencies.

Beats

As waves drift out of phase, the resulting amplitude will decrease reaching
zero and then increase again as they drift back in phase.
Beats refer to the variation in volume of a sound that occurs when two
sounds of slightly different frequencies occur together.

Unit 3.1: The Waves of the Electromagnetic Spectrum

The electromagnetic spectrum is the full range of wavelengths of all EM waves:

Radio waves
o Wavelengths 10cm - 1000m
o Frequencies are categorized as AM, FM, VHF and UHF
Microwaves
o Wavelengths 1mm - 30cm
o Transmission can travel distances of up to 100km but there must be a
direct line of sight from transmitter to receiver as they travel in straight
lines
Infra-red radiation
o Wavelengths 700nm - 1mm
o Detected by electronic detectors
Visible light
o Wavelength 400 - 700nm
Ultraviolet
o Wavelength 10 - 400nm
o Small doses encourages production of vitamin D
o Large doses lead to cell and tissue damage and develop skin cancer,
most harmful radiation is absorbed by the atmosphere
o Detected by UV detectors
X-rays
o Wavelength 0.01 - 10nm
o Used for medical examination of dense parts of the body
o Can be detected by photographic film
Gamma rays
o Wavelengths less than 0.01nm
o Treatment of some cancers
o Detected with a Geiger counter

Unit 3.2: Atmospheric Filtering of Electromagnetic Waves

The Earths atmosphere and ionosphere absorb most of the incoming

electromagnetic radiation from space except for visible light and some highfrequency radio waves in the microwave region.
The ionosphere is a layer of gas that is ionised by losing or gaining electrons
between 50km - 500km above Earth
The ionosphere consists of 3 layers: D, E and F
o D layer: 50- 80km, hard x-ray radiation with short wavelengths/ high
frequency and most infra-red radiation absorbed
o E layer: 80 -105km, soft x-rays with long wavelengths, gamma rays, UV
rays are absorbed
o F layer: 145- 300km/600 km at night, extreme ultraviolet radiation with
short wavelengths absorbed
Some solar activities such as solar flares release large bursts of energy that
increase ionisation and change the degree of reflection and absorption.

The Communication Spectrum

The government restricts the range of frequencies and limits the bandwidth
over which certain communication devices can operate. This is done to:
o Avoid interferences
o Provide equity for users because the communication industry is very
competitive
o Enable communications for the safety infrastructure
o Allow development of new technologies that require spectrum
bandwidth

Unit 3.3: Electromagnetic Radiation and the Inverse Square

Law

Communication technology that uses electromagnetic waves is able to

travel long distances but signal strength decreases. This is known as
attenuation where there is a falloff in energy as a wave passes through
a medium.

To reduce attenuation effects, electromagnetic waves are released with

very large strength or the signals are amplified at repeaters or booster
stations.
Very weak signals may be collected by a receiver that covers a large
area and focuses the signal to increase its strength e.g. satellite dishes
The inverse square law states that the intensity of electromagnetic
radiation is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the
source of the radiation:

Light intensity (illuminance) is measured in units called lux (lx).

e.g. if you were one metre from a light source where the light intensity
was 16 000 lx, then:
o
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Unit 3.4: Modulation of Waves to Transmit Information

A wave that carries exactly the same amount of energy continuously does
not carry information.
There are two simple ways to vary a wave to add information to it. You
either vary the frequency (and hence wavelength and energy) of the wave
or you vary the amplitude (and hence energy) of the wave.
The process of adding the signal information to an electromagnetic wave is
called modulation.
The modulated wave that makes up the signal must then be converted back
into information you can use. That process is called demodulation.

Modulating a Radio Wave

A radio-wave signal occupies a bandwidth of frequencies. This means that

the transmitted wave is using a number of frequencies forming a band in
the spectrum.
In the middle of that bandwidth is the carrier wave. The carrier wave does
not carry any information and acts as the central frequency to which the
receiver is tuned.
The message signal is added to that carrier wave. This is done by
superposition of a signal wave onto the carrier wave.

AM

The signal is added to an AM carrier-wave radio signal by changing the

amplitude of the wave but the frequency remains constant.
The variation in the amplitude of the wave is decoded by a radio receive
which is amplified and converted to the sound signal you hear.

FM

A frequency-modulated (FM) radio transmission means that the signal part

of the wave has been added to the carrier wave to vary the frequency of the
wave.
A limiting circuit in the radio receiver removes any amplitude variations that
occur during transmission of the radio signal and keeps the amplitude of the
received wave near constant.
The signal is converted back into sound by a discriminator circuit.
The effects of static are reduced in FM radio broadcasts because the FM
radio signal is not dependent on the strength (amplitude) of the signal
received, but rather relies on the frequency. It is much harder to change the
frequency of a wave by interference.
AM radio requires a much smaller bandwidth of frequencies for transmission
allowing a larger number of transmissions.

Modulation of Microwaves

Microwaves are preferred over longer wavelength radio waves for mobile
telephone systems because:
o The electromagnetic spectrum is limited and the microwave bandwidth
has the capacity available
o Microwaves don't spread out as much allowing more energy to reach
the receivers
o The large range of frequencies in the microwave transmission range
allows a large number of signals to be transmitted at once i.e. up to
20000 telephone calls can be transmitted at once

Modulation of Visible Light

Light modulation is also used to carry signals e.g. laser light transmission
but is very susceptible to interference.
As such, long distance communication via light is accomplished along fibreoptic cables

Radar

Radar works by sending out evenly spaced pulses of radio-wave energy of a

certain wavelength.
Electrons move in an alternating current that has a controlled frequency.
The up and down movement creates pulses, which reflect back when the
they strike an object creating an echo for the radar antenna to detect
A computer receives the AC information about where the echo is coming
from, whether the wavelength has been altered and how long each pulse
takes to return
A visible-light track of the moving object is generated on the radar display
The radar uses an accurate, high-speed clock to process the radio waves
travelling at the speed of light and measure the speed of the object.
This is done by looking at the Doppler shift or change in wavelength of the
radio waves:

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If the object is moving away from the source the wavelengths will be
lengthened as a result of collision and reflection
If the object is moving towards the source, the reflected wavelengths
are shorter.

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