Physlet Illustration: Basic Wave Properties

 

 

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A wave travels through a medium. The grid display is in meters, and the times are shown in seconds. What are the wave's wavelength, frequency and speed?

Hints:

  1. Stop the animation at a convenient time, and measure the peak-to-peak separation on the horizontal grid. This distance is the wavelength, l, in meters.
  2. Let the animation run and choose a single point along the wave's path (e.g. the point x = 0). Try to determine how long it takes between one crest and the next striking that point. This time is called the period, T, in seconds. 
  3. The inverse of the period, 1/T,  is the frequency, f, in Hz.
  4. Finally, choose one point on the wave (e.g. one particular wave crest) to follow, and measure how far that point moves in a particular time interval. In this way, you determine the wave's speed, v, in m/s.
  5. According to the theory of traveling waves, how should these three quantities (l, f and v) be related mathematically? Do your results confirm this relationship?

Reference

See Walker, Section 14-1


Illustration written by Steve Mellema