Wave Behaviors: Optical and Acoustic Phenomena

Section role: supports the Wednesday exploration of wave behaviors while the teacher leads the class through geometric optics and wave phenomena. Slides: (1) Title — 'Bending, Bouncing, and Blending'; (2) Reflection — bullets: law of reflection, angle of incidence equals angle of reflection, diagram of a mirror bounce; (3) Refraction — bullets: definition, bending when passing from air to water, Snell's law conceptual intro; (4) Dispersion — bullets: white light splitting through a prism, different refractive angles for red (700 nm) and violet (400 nm) wavelengths; (5) Diffraction — bullets: bending around obstacles, comparison with obstacle size; (6) Interference — bullets: constructive vs. destructive interference, wave superposition; (7) Polarization — bullets: filters vibrating in a single plane, blocking transverse wave components; (8) Transition Slide — 'How do these properties change when a wave moves from air to water?'. Closing slide: 'Which wave behavior is responsible for rainbows?' — hands control back to the teacher for small group discussions.

Lara from Teachy