Review your notes, homework and labs. Work some example problems in the back of each chapter and drop by the office to discuss the topics. Chapter 3 Radiation Visible light is a particular type of electromagnetic radiation and travels through space in the form of a wave. The wave frequency is simply 1 divided by the wave period-it counts the number of wave crests that pass a given point in one second. Diffraction is the tendency of a wave to spread out after passing through an opening or to bend around a corner.
Interference is the ability of two waves to reinforce or partially cancel each other.
Electrons and protons are elementary particles that carry equal and opposite electrical charges. Any electrically charged object is surrounded by an electric field that determines the force it exerts on other charged objects. Like gravitational fields, electric fields decrease as the square of the distance from their source. When a charged particle moves, information about that motion is transmitted throughout the universe by the particle's changing electric field. The information travels in the form of a wave at the speed of light .