Sound Vs. Light | Mechanical and Electromagnetic Waves and the Electromagnetic Spectrum

16x24 Poster; Electromagnetic Spectrum by Welsh Printing

Have you ever heard the saying, "faster than the speed of light"? Have you ever wondered why sound can travel so fast? Faster than sound? This is because light is an electromagnetic wave. This means that it can travel through a vacuum, or empty space. This means that it does not have to wait for a molecule to be able to move. But why can't sound move that fast? This is because sound is a Mechanical wave, Longitudinal to be exact. Sound waves, being mechanical waves, have to travel through a medium, or matter. This means that vibrations have to be sent from particle to particle, costing time. Thus why it can move faster through solids than liquids and gasses. This is because in a solid, the molecules are very close together, this means that sound waves don't have to wait a very long time to move from molecule to molecule, but in air, sometimes it can take a while to find another molecule to move onto and travel through, ergo, sound travels fastest through solids and denser mediums. But what does this have to do with other types of waves. There are two main families of waves, electromagnetic waves and mechanical waves. Mechanical waves are waves that need a medium to travel through. There are many different types of mechanical waves that include transverse waves, longitudinal waves and even oceanic wave. They also include seismic waves or earthquakes. Then there are Electromagnetic waves. These waves are like light rays and don't need to travel through a medium, meaning that they can travel through a vacuum or space.  In the electromagnetic waves, there is the electromagnetic spectrum, this is the spectrum of waves of the order of radiation The order is, radio waves, microwaves, infrared radiation, visible light, ultraviolet light, x-ray, and then gamma rays.

S&EP
SP2: Using models

We used models to see just how sound travels differently in different objects. We also used models to show the different types of waves and how they are different and can be manipulated. This helped because it showed the way that different waves acted and how that changed the outcome of the wave such as the amplitude, wavelength and wave power. It also helped to model what sound travels fastest through because that gave us a better understanding of why sound travels fastest through what it travels fastest through. This is just another example of how models can help scientist to better understand what they are doing and why and how it works.

XCC
XCC: Energy and Matter

Energy and matter are a very important part of telling different waves from each other. Matter can help to separate the two main types of waves, electromagnetic and mechanical. This can help us to differentiate the two waves because mechanical waves need a medium or matter to be able to travel, whereas electromagnetic doesn't. Energy comes into play because waves have different ways to passing on energy. Some waves, like transversal waves, travel perpendicular to energy, where others, such as longitudinal waves, travel parallel to energy. Each wave also carries different amounts of energy. High frequency waves carry more energy than lower frequency waves. These can help us to separate different types of waves from one another and calculate how to find their wave speed and wave power.