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United StatesPhysics 2

Unit 14: Waves, Sound, and Physical Optics

6 dot points across 6 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

What happens when a wave meets a boundary, and what does polarization reveal about light?

Topic 14.3 Boundary Behavior of Waves and Polarization: describe reflection and transmission of waves at boundaries and the polarization of transverse waves.
A focused answer to AP Physics 2 Topic 14.3, covering what happens when a wave meets a boundary (reflection, transmission and inversion), the constancy of frequency across a boundary, and the polarization of transverse waves as evidence that light is transverse, with full worked examples.
10 min answer →

How does light's wave nature produce bright and dark fringes through slits and thin films?

Topic 14.7 Diffraction and Interference of Light: apply double-slit interference, diffraction gratings and thin-film interference using path difference.
A focused answer to AP Physics 2 Topics 14.7 to 14.9, covering diffraction, double-slit interference and the bright-fringe condition d sin theta = m lambda, diffraction gratings, thin-film interference, and how path difference produces constructive and destructive interference of light as evidence of its wave nature, with full worked examples.
12 min answer →

What is an electromagnetic wave, and how is the spectrum organized?

Topic 14.4 Electromagnetic Waves: describe electromagnetic waves, their speed in vacuum, and the electromagnetic spectrum.
A focused answer to AP Physics 2 Topic 14.4, covering electromagnetic waves as oscillating electric and magnetic fields, their constant speed in vacuum, the wave equation c = f lambda for light, the organization of the electromagnetic spectrum by frequency and wavelength, and the transverse nature of light, with full worked examples.
10 min answer →

What happens when two waves overlap, and how do standing waves form on a string?

Topic 14.6 Wave Interference and Standing Waves: apply superposition to interference and find the harmonics of standing waves.
A focused answer to AP Physics 2 Topic 14.6, covering the superposition principle, constructive and destructive interference, the formation of standing waves with nodes and antinodes, the harmonics of a string and a pipe, and resonance, with full worked examples.
11 min answer →

What is a wave, and how do its speed, frequency and wavelength relate?

Topic 14.1 Properties of Wave Pulses and Periodic Waves: describe transverse and longitudinal waves and apply v = f lambda to periodic waves.
A focused answer to AP Physics 2 Topics 14.1 and 14.2, covering wave pulses and periodic waves, the distinction between transverse and longitudinal waves, the meaning of amplitude, wavelength, frequency and period, the wave equation v = f lambda, and the fact that a medium does not travel with the wave, with full worked examples.
11 min answer →

Why does a siren's pitch rise as it approaches and fall as it recedes?

Topic 14.5 The Doppler Effect: explain the shift in observed frequency when a wave source and observer move relative to each other.
A focused answer to AP Physics 2 Topic 14.5, covering the Doppler effect for sound and light, the rise in observed frequency on approach and the fall on recession, the physical reason in terms of bunched and stretched wavefronts, and the redshift of receding light, with full worked examples.
10 min answer →