Question

rank the following waves from highest to lowest energy. wave 1 wave 2 wave 3 1,3,2 3,2,1 2,1,3 1,2,3

Explanation:

Step1: Recall Energy - Frequency Relationship

The energy of a wave (for electromagnetic waves, but the concept of energy related to frequency holds for other waves too) is related to its frequency by the formula \( E = hf \) (where \( h \) is Planck's constant and \( f \) is frequency). Higher frequency means higher energy. Frequency is inversely related to wavelength (\( f=\frac{v}{\lambda} \), \( v \) is wave speed), but more directly, frequency is the number of cycles per unit time (or per unit distance in a graph like this, since the x - axis can be considered as a distance scale here). So, the wave with the most number of cycles (highest frequency) has the highest energy.

Step2: Count Cycles (Frequency) of Each Wave

• Wave 1: Looking at the graph, it has the most number of cycles (the most densely packed waves) among the three. So it has the highest frequency.
• Wave 2: Has fewer cycles than Wave 1 but more than Wave 3.
• Wave 3: Has the fewest number of cycles (the least densely packed waves), so it has the lowest frequency.

Step3: Rank by Energy

Since energy is proportional to frequency, the wave with the highest frequency (Wave 1) has the highest energy, followed by Wave 2, and then Wave 3. So the ranking from highest to lowest energy is 1, 2, 3.

Answer:

1,2,3