SP4 Waves personal learning checklist

GCSE Edexcel Separate Sciences · Physics Paper 1

Name ____________________ Class __________ Date __________

Tick one box per statement. Red: need help. Amber: partly confident. Green: can do independently.

I canRedAmberGreen
Wave behaviour
Explain energy and information transfer without net matter transfer, using water and sound evidence.
Compare transverse and longitudinal waves, their examples, compressions and rarefactions.
Explain why sound needs a medium while electromagnetic waves can cross a vacuum.
Measurements and calculations
Identify wavelength, amplitude, frequency, period and wavefronts from descriptions and diagrams.
Calculate and rearrange wave speed from frequency and wavelength or distance and time.
Calculate period from frequency and use appropriate units and wavelength interval counts.
Measuring wave speed
Describe ripple-tank measurements, including frequency, several wavelengths, reflections and uncertainty.
Describe string-wave measurements using node spacing, generator frequency and controlled tension.
Describe sound-speed methods using microphone delays or echoes, including round-trip distance.
Refraction and materials
Explain refraction through speed changes and draw ray directions relative to the normal.
Explain unchanged frequency, changed wavelength and normal-incidence behaviour across a boundary.
Describe wavelength-dependent reflection, absorption, transmission and refraction by materials (Higher).
Wave boundaries
Explain reflection, absorption, transmission and sound-wave changes at material boundaries.
Calculate echo distances from round-trip time and wave speed (Higher).
Explain ultrasound, infrasound and their imaging, sonar and Earth-monitoring uses (Higher).
Hearing and response
Describe how the ear converts sound vibrations into nerve signals (Higher).
Explain limited frequency responses of ears, microphones and loudspeakers (Higher).

Next revision priority: __________________________________________________