Waves & Optics
Use this page to review the core ideas, then practise with your lecture questions, tutorials and past papers.
Core ideas
- Wave speed relates frequency and wavelength by v = fλ.
- Interference results from superposition of waves.
- Diffraction becomes important when an aperture or obstacle is comparable with wavelength.
- Refraction changes wave direction when speed changes between media.
- Polarisation describes the orientation of transverse wave oscillations.
Practice checklist
- Identify the medium and wavelength before calculating.
- Distinguish constructive from destructive interference.
- Use a labelled ray diagram for refraction problems.
- Check whether angles are measured from the normal.