Waves in Modern Technology
Aligned to HS-PS4-5 — Next Generation Science Standards.
What this lesson teaches
Many devices work by sending waves into matter, then reading how the waves reflect, bend, or are absorbed. Ultrasound, radar, fiber-optic internet, solar cells, and medical imaging all convert wave behavior into usable information or energy by controlling how waves interact with materials.
Worked example
An ultrasound machine sends high-frequency sound pulses into the body. When a pulse hits a boundary between tissues it reflects as an echo. The machine times how long each echo takes to return and uses the sound's speed to calculate the depth, building an image from thousands of these distance measurements.
Practice questions
- Name a device that transmits information using waves and state which wave type it uses.
- Explain how a fiber-optic cable uses total internal reflection of light to carry a phone call across an ocean.
- Choose a technology (radar, solar cell, or MRI) and communicate how it relies on a specific wave-matter interaction to work.
Watch the lesson
Every lesson comes with a video taught in English and Spanish — the same video the QR code in the printed workbook opens.
▶ Watch this lessonEn español
Ondas en la Tecnología Moderna
Muchos dispositivos funcionan enviando ondas hacia la materia y luego leyendo cómo las ondas se reflejan, se doblan o se absorben. El ultrasonido, el radar, el internet por fibra óptica, las celdas solares y las imágenes médicas convierten el comportamiento de las ondas en información o energía útil controlando cómo interactúan las ondas con los materiales.
Ejemplo: Un equipo de ultrasonido envía pulsos de sonido de alta frecuencia hacia el cuerpo. Cuando un pulso llega a la frontera entre tejidos se refleja como un eco. El equipo mide cuánto tarda en regresar cada eco y usa la rapidez del sonido para calcular la profundidad, formando una imagen a partir de miles de estas mediciones de distancia.
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