You dip your finger into a pan of water three times each second, producing waves with crests that are separated by 0.14 m.

Question

Determine the frequency of these water waves:

What is the period of the water waves:

Find the speed of the waves:

Answer 1

To find frequency, consider that each time you dip your finger into the pan, you create a new wave. Since three waves are created every second, the frequency would be:

frequency f = 3s^-1 = 3Hz

Period, or the amount of time it takes for one wave to pass, is the reciprocal of the frequency, so:

period T = 1/f = 1/(3Hz) = 0.33s

Using the equation v = λ*f, we can find the velocity of the wave.

We know that the wavelength, λ = 0.14m, so velocity would be:

v = λ*f = (0.14m)(3s^-1) = 0.42 m/s

The important equations here are T = 1/f and v = λ*f, but it is important to recognize how each component of the word problem translates to the corresponding value in the equations. For example, "waves with crests separated by 0.14m" implies that the wavelength is 0.14m.