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O-Level General Properties of Waves

What the O-Level syllabus expects for General Properties of Waves, and how to practise it.

What the syllabus expects

Describe wave motion using vibrations along ropes and springs and waves in a ripple tank, including the term wavefront.
Understand that waves carry energy but do not carry matter along with them.
Define, and use in graphs, the terms speed, frequency, wavelength, period and amplitude.
Recall and use speed of wave = frequency × wavelength in unfamiliar situations or problem solving.
Contrast transverse and longitudinal waves and give appropriate examples of each.
Understand that vibrating sources can generate sound and that a medium is needed to transmit it.
Describe the longitudinal character of sound waves through compression and rarefaction.
Link a sound wave's loudness to its amplitude and its pitch to its frequency.
Describe how reflected sound can create an echo and how this can be used to measure distances.
Describe and account for uses of ultrasound, for example sonar and medical scanning of soft tissue.

About 6% of the past-paper style questions in Rae's bank for this subject sit in this topic.