Light and Sound Jeopardy

Reflection, refraction, pitch, and volume: a light and sound review for middle school physical science. Free to copy, with students buzzing in on phones.

6 categories · 30 clues · Final Jeopardy · everyone buzzes in from their phone

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Every clue on this board

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Reflection

$200
The Moon does not make its own light; it shines by reflecting light from this.
What is the Sun?
$400
A sound that bounces off a canyon wall and comes back to you is called this.
What is an echo?
$600
A periscope lets a submarine crew see above the water by using two of these, tilted at 45 degrees.
What are mirrors?
$800
The law of reflection says the angle of incidence always equals this angle.
What is the angle of reflection?
$1,000
Light bouncing off a rough surface like paper scatters in many directions, a kind of reflection called this.
What is diffuse reflection?

Refraction and Lenses

$200
This curved piece of clear glass or plastic bends light to focus it, as in eyeglasses.
What is a lens?
$400
This tool uses lenses or mirrors to make faraway objects like planets look closer.
What is a telescope?
$600
A lens that is thicker in the middle and brings light rays together is this kind of lens.
What is a convex lens?
$800
Light bends when it passes from air into water because it changes this.
What is speed?
$1,000
The point where a magnifying lens brings parallel light rays together is called this.
What is the focal point?

Color and the Spectrum

$200
This triangular piece of glass splits white light into the colors of the rainbow.
What is a prism?
$400
Students remember the order of the rainbow's colors with this made-up man's name.
Who is Roy G. Biv?
$600
An object that absorbs all colors of light and reflects none appears this color.
What is black?
$800
The primary colors of light are red, blue and this color.
What is green?
$1,000
Of all the colors of visible light, this one has the longest wavelength.
What is red?

Pitch and Volume

$200
An object that vibrates very fast makes a sound with this kind of pitch.
What is high?
$400
The loudness of a sound is measured in these units.
What are decibels?
$600
Pitch depends on this, the number of vibrations per second.
What is frequency?
$800
The loudness of a sound depends on this, the height of the sound wave.
What is amplitude?
$1,000
Pitch is measured in this unit, named for a German physicist, equal to one vibration per second.
What is hertz?

How Sound Travels

$200
Every sound is made by these quick back-and-forth movements.
What are vibrations?
$400
Sound cannot travel through this, a completely empty space with no matter.
What is a vacuum?
$600
Sound travels fastest through this state of matter.
What is a solid?
$800
Sound waves are this type of wave, in which particles move back and forth in the same direction the wave travels.
What is a longitudinal wave?
$1,000
An airplane flying faster than the speed of sound creates this thunder-like noise heard on the ground.
What is a sonic boom?

Eyes and Ears

$200
This black opening in the center of the eye lets light in.
What is the pupil?
$400
Sound waves make this thin, tight membrane in the ear vibrate.
What is the eardrum?
$600
This layer at the back of the eye, with rods and cones, turns light into nerve signals.
What is the retina?
$800
This snail-shaped, fluid-filled part of the inner ear turns vibrations into nerve signals.
What is the cochlea?
$1,000
The three tiny bones of the middle ear are the hammer, the anvil and this, the smallest bone in the body.
What is the stirrup (stapes)?

Final Jeopardy — Flash and Boom

You see a lightning flash before you hear the thunder because light travels much faster than this.

What is sound?

How to run this board

Light and sound are both waves, and this board keeps the two side by side so students can compare them. Columns cover how light reflects and refracts, where colors come from, how sound travels through different materials, what changes pitch and volume, and how the eye and ear turn waves into what we see and hear.

A flashlight, a mirror, and a glass of water with a pencil in it cost nothing and make the reflection and refraction clues concrete. Demonstrate one after the first clue in each column and the rest go faster.

When a team answers a sound clue, ask the opposing team to name one way the other kind of wave behaves differently. It is a quick way to catch the common mix-up that sound can travel through space.

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