Using Jupyter Notebooks to Explore Waves

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.

A familiarity with graphing functions.

When you think of the word “wave,” what comes to mind? You might think of the waves in the ocean, or a sea of hands waving around at a baseball stadium. You may even think of light waves or sound waves—waves we can’t see! Waves are everywhere, and they carry important information about the environment. We can examine what this information is based on the wave’s characteristics. If we’re looking at a light wave, we can figure out what color the wave is based on the wave’s frequency or wavelength. If we’re listening to a sound wave, we can determine how loud and what pitch the sound is based on its amplitude and frequency, respectively!

This picture provides just one of many examples of a wave, what other kinds of waves can you think of?CopyrightCopyright 2004 Malene Thyssen (CC BY-SA 3.0), Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boelge_stor.jpg

Understanding waves and the information they carry, whether it’s a sound or light, is critical to designing instruments for using and manipulating sound and light. Do you listen to rock music? The electric guitar has several components that were engineered to make the sound loud and clear. Do you wear glasses? Your lenses were crafted to bend the light onto your eyes in a way that makes your sight clearer!

In this activity, we will discuss the background information that the scientists and engineers of your favorite band’s instruments and you or your friend’s glasses used when creating these designs. You will learn about what makes an airplane so loud and the ocean so blue. After this activity, you will have learned about how waves are modeled mathematically, and how changing the variables of the equation change the resulting wave.

Present the What Is A Wave? PowerPoint Presentation (PPTX). See slide notes below.

1. Slide 1: Ask students to name different kinds of waves—they do not have to be “scientific”
2. 1. Examples: ocean waves, sound waves, light waves, hand waves, etc.
2. Slide 4: Make sure you point to the inflection point on the wave shown in the figure.
3. Slide 5: Show different ways of measuring period (crest to crest, trough to trough) on the wave shown in the figure.
4. Slide 7: Mention that different frequencies in light waves make different visible colors (shorter wave = purple, longer wave = red).
5. Slide 8: This slide contains an image that shows the different wavelengths of light and their associated colors.
6. Slide 11: This slide contains a GIF that shows the effect of changing the amplitude, wavelength, and phase of a sine wave.

Background

Jupyter Notebooks are interactive coding guides with pre-written Python code that students and teachers may run with the press of a button. This activity requires the use of a Jupyter Notebook using Google Colaboratory—a free-to-use program that may be used with a Google account. To learn how to use Jupyter Notebooks, see our Jupyter Notebook Guide (PDF).

Before the Activity

• Hand out the Pre-Assessment (PDF) to students and have them complete it independently. Remind them that this assignment is NOT graded and that they are NOT expected to know the correct answers.
• Review the Jupyter Notebook Guide (PDF) and complete the tutorials referenced in the guide.
• Make copies of the Activity Sheet (PDF).
• Make sure students have access to the What Is A Wave? Notebook File (IPYNB). They will use it in Google Colaboratory.
• • You can either post a link on a classroom website or email them the file.

With the Students

1. Introduce the activity with the Introduction and present the PowerPoint Presentation (PPTX).
2. Have students work individually (optional: Divide class into groups of 2 – 4 students).
3. Hand out a copy of the Activity Sheet (PDF) to each student. Each student should turn in their own copy, even if they are in groups.
4. Demonstrate how to open and run a Jupyter Notebook as shown in the Jupyter Notebook Guide (PDF). Check if students have any lingering questions about Jupyter and encourage them to explore other tutorials in Google Colaboratory.

Jupyter Notebooks may be used to create customizable wave plots, like this one!CopyrightCopyright 2020 Shappell, Nair, Welch, Banks, Opsal, & Menker, University of Missouri RET

5. Students run the What Is A Wave? Notebook File (IPYNB) and modify the values, recoding the results on their worksheets. If students are working in groups, encourage them to help each other if they get stuck. If students are working individually, they may ask their neighbors for help.

In this activity, try creating your own sinusoidal wave—then, ask a partner if they can try to recreate it without looking at your slider settings!CopyrightCopyright 2020 Shappell, Nair, Welch, Banks, Opsal, & Menker, University of Missouri RET

6. As students work, remind them that scientists and engineers often look at waveforms to assist them in design projects. Ask students to brainstorm how a scientist or engineer might apply their knowledge about waves. Prompt students’ thinking by sharing that waves are important to the design of radios, cell phones, Bluetooth, infrared cameras, Wi-Fi, televisions, etc.
7. Hand out the Post-Assessment (PDF) to students and have them complete it independently.

Pre-Activity Assessment    

Pre-Assessment: Hand out the Pre-Assessment (PDF) to students and have them complete it independently. Remind them that this assignment is NOT graded and that they are NOT expected to know the correct answers.

Embedded (Formative) Assessment

Activity Sheet: To ensure students are reading the waveform correctly and engaging in the activity, have students complete the Activity Sheet (PDF).

Post-Activity (Summative) Assessment

Post-Assessment: Hand out the Post-Assessment (PDF) to students and have them complete it independently.

Attention: This Activity requires a Google account and use of Google Colaboratory: Google Colab