Modelling waves with slinkies
In this activity, students model how sound travels by sending waves along two stretched plastic slinkies tied together.
Frequency
This graph shows different frequencies of sound waves. As the frequency increases, the distance between the peaks of the sine wave graph decrease.
By the end of this activity, students should be able to:
understand that sound is a longitudinal wave where particles in the medium vibrate back and forth along the same direction as the wave travels
see that a wave travels along as a series of compressions and expansions in the medium.
Animated ripple pattern
This animated video of a ripple moving out from a central source helps us visualise how sound waves radiate out in all directions from a vibrating source.
Download the Word file (see link below) for:
introduction/background notes
instructions on what you need and what to do
discussion questions
ideas.
