Using Jupyter Notebooks to Explore Waves
As an introduction to analyzing sinusoidal waves, students learn how to use a Jupyter Notebook. They learn how to identify the frequency, wavelength, amplitude, period, and phase of a simple sinusoidal waveform. As they learn how to label the parts and properties of the waves, they connect these characteristics of waves to various real-world wave examples such as ocean waves, visible light, and sound. Students will examine a mathematical model of a sinusoidal waveform and connect each variable to its corresponding wave property. They will manipulate each variable of the model using Python code in a Jupyter Notebook and examine the effect of changing each variable on the resulting waveform.
Waves colored like the frequencies of the visible spectrum. The bottom waves have higher frequencies than those above. The horizontal axis represents time.Copyright 2007 LucasBV, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons, https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonido#/media/Archivo:Sine_waves_different_frequencies.svg
Understanding the properties of waves is important for engineers who design anything from solar panels to EEG monitoring devices. For waves, it is important for engineers to understand the distinctions between different frequencies of waves and what they mean. This knowledge will help engineers to better design machines and tools to both measure and regulate waves. Using a Jupyter Notebook and Python coding also helps students learn how to employ programming into their designs.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Identify the parts of a wave (inflection point, period, etc.).
- Describe the effect of changing a wave’s frequency or amplitude on the wave’s graph.
- Describe the physical effect of changing a light or sound wave’s frequency or amplitude.
- Recognize that scientists and engineers need knowledge of waves to design useful products.