Scientists use wave tanks to show the behaviour of waves. The diagram shows a wave tank from the side. The length of the tank = 36 m (i) Calculate the wavelength of the waves. (ii) A crest of the wave takes 20 s to travel the whole length of the tank. Calculate the speed of the wave. State the unit.

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Scientists use wave tanks to show the behaviour of waves - Edexcel - GCSE Physics - Question 1 - 2016 - Paper 1

Question 1

Scientists use wave tanks to show the behaviour of waves. The diagram shows a wave tank from the side. The length of the tank = 36 m (i) Calculate the wavelength o... show full transcript

Worked Solution & Example Answer:Scientists use wave tanks to show the behaviour of waves - Edexcel - GCSE Physics - Question 1 - 2016 - Paper 1

Step 1

Calculate the wavelength of the waves.

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Answer

To calculate the wavelength of the waves, we need to know the relationship between the total length of the wave tank and the number of waves that fit within it. Assuming the wave pattern shown is sinusoidal, let's denote the number of waves as 'n'. Given that the length of the tank is 36 m and if there are 8 complete wave cycles (as inferred from standard wave patterns), we can compute the wavelength as follows:

$\text{Wavelength} = \frac{\text{Length of tank}}{\text{Number of waves}} = \frac{36 \text{ m}}{8} = 4.5 \text{ m}$

Step 2

Calculate the speed of the wave.

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Answer

To calculate the speed of the wave, we can use the formula:

$\text{Speed} = \frac{\text{Distance}}{\text{Time}}$

The distance is the length of the tank (36 m) and the time taken for a crest of the wave to travel this distance is 20 s:

$\text{Speed} = \frac{36 \text{ m}}{20 \text{ s}} = 1.8 \text{ m/s}$

Thus, the speed of the wave is 1.8 m/s.

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Scientists use wave tanks to show the behaviour of waves - Edexcel - GCSE Physics - Question 1 - 2016 - Paper 1

Worked Solution & Example Answer:Scientists use wave tanks to show the behaviour of waves - Edexcel - GCSE Physics - Question 1 - 2016 - Paper 1

Calculate the wavelength of the waves.

Calculate the speed of the wave.

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