I was supposed to be the scribe Monday, but I was not here, so I will scribe for both Monday and Tuesday today.

We watched a movie and received a couple of worksheets. We learned about Snell's Law for water waves, which allows us to calulate the angles, speeds and wavelengths associated with refraction. The equation was sinθi/sinθr = λi/λr = inr , where the symbols "i" and "r" refer to the incident wavefronts and rays and the refractive wavefronts and rays respectively. The ratio is always constant and this constant is referred to as the index of refraction.

Remember, when water waves move from one depth to another, the frequency of the waves does not change, but the speed and wavelength does. We use vdeep/vshallow = λdeep/λshallow to determine the speeds and the wavelengths. When a wave moves from deep water to shallow water, the speed and wavelength decreases while the wave ray is refracted towards the normal; when a wave moves from shallow water to deep water, the speed and wavelength increases while the wave ray is refracted away from the normal.

~Katherine