Transverse, longitudinal and sound waves

Grade 8 Science Worksheet

Circle the best answer.

1. 1.

   Ari beats a drum, and a sound wave moves east through the air. How do the air particles move?

   • Back and forth, east and west
   • Up and down, across the wave's path
   • East with the wave, right to your ear
   • They stay still
2. 2.

   Esme's book describes a wave whose particles move at right angles to the wave's direction. Which wave is it?

   • A transverse wave
   • A sound wave in air
   • A longitudinal wave
   • A wave that carries particles along

3. Read this first

   Spring wave diagram (example data)

   a spring lying along a ruler marked 0 to 90 cm. Compressions (bunched coils) at 15, 45, 75 cm. Rarefactions (spread-out coils) at 30, 60 cm.

4. 3.

   Kira draws a slower push on the spring, so the compressions are farther apart. What is the wavelength?

   • 30 cm
   • 60 cm
   • 15 cm
   • 90 cm
5. 4.

   Luz measures a very long spring stretched across the gym floor. What is the wavelength?

   • 0.4 m
   • 1.6 m
   • 2.4 m
   • 0.8 m

6. Table (OpenStax data)

   Material, speed of sound (m/s). Air at 20 °C, about 343; fresh water, about 1,480; steel, about 5,900 to 6,000.

7. 5.

   Milo studies the speed of sound table. In which material does sound travel fastest?

   • Steel
   • Each one, since sound has one speed
   • Air, since it is the easiest to move through
   • Fresh water
8. 6.

   A whale's call travels through water. Using the table, about how many times faster is sound in water than in air, Noah?

   • About 40 times faster
   • Slower in water than in air
   • About the same speed
   • About 4 times faster
9. 7.

   Pia wonders why sound moves faster in water than in air. Which reason fits the science?

   • It doesn't: sound is faster in air
   • Water is much harder to squeeze than air
   • Water carries the sound along as a current
   • Sound turns into light in water
10. 8.

    Ren looks at the night sky. Which wave can cross the empty space between a far star and Earth?

    • Sound from the star
    • The star's light
    • A ripple on a pond
    • A wave along a rope
11. 9.

    Tala reads that sound and water waves are mechanical waves. What do mechanical waves need?

    • Light to carry them
    • Empty space with nothing in it
    • A battery
    • Matter to travel through, called a medium
12. 10.

    Zee reads that astronauts outside their spacecraft talk by radio. Why can't they just shout to each other?

    • Sound needs matter; radio waves don't
    • Radio is louder than shouting
    • Shouting is too slow in space
    • Their spacesuits are too thick