What this practice covers
These questions are drawn from past CIE 0625 Physics papers and filtered to general properties of waves. You answer, you find out immediately whether you were right, and you get the reasoning for the correct option and for each distractor. Wrong answers go to a mistakes locker so you can come back to exactly those.
Practice is free. You need an account only so your progress and your mistakes are still there next time.
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What examiners see students get wrong here
These are the errors that cost marks on general properties of waves, taken from our own topic notes. Read them before you practise and you will recognise the traps in the questions.
- Saying a wave transfers matter as well as energy.
- Measuring amplitude from crest to trough rather than from the undisturbed position.
- Saying the frequency changes when a wave enters a new medium.
- Saying the wavelength changes during diffraction.
- Getting refraction backwards: slowing down bends the wave towards the normal.
- Forgetting that a wave meeting a boundary along the normal does not change direction.
- Saying diffraction is greatest through a very wide gap.
- Calling sound a transverse wave.
Revise it first
If any of the above is unfamiliar, work through the notes before practising: General properties of waves revision notes.