Ripple Tank Report If someone were to spend time near an ocean in the southern United States, they would probably notice one thing. They would notice that it was so hot, that they would need to cool off all day long. And the best way to do this would be to go to the nearest beach, and cool off in the refreshing waters. At the beach, they would hear the seagulls cawing, feel the hot sun shining down onto them, and they would notice all of the waves in the ocean. They may notice different wave phenomena, such as the waves breaking and growing and wonder what were going on, and why this phenomenon was occurring. Well, the answers to that person’s questions, and more, will appear in this report.The way we will answer these questions will be answered by looking at a ripple tank, designed to simulate the waves that occur throughout our environment. The first thing that will be looked at is to find the velocity of a wave in the ripple tank. The first way that we will find the velocity of the waves is that we will use the formula:F = frequencyV = F (lambda)When: lambda = area/waves in the areaBut finding the frequency is a whole problem in itself. To find the frequency, we found that we could use an instrument that would turn over our eyes that would make the waves appear to stop. This is because the instrument would be turning at the same rate that the waves were moving. We could count the number of revolutions that were made in twenty seconds, and divide the two numbers and come up with the frequency part of our formula. (36 revolutions were made in 20 seconds, to give us a frequency of 1.8). To find the lambda part of the problem, we simply sectioned off an area, and counted the number of waves in that area using the device used in the frequency part of the problem. (12 waves were in an are .5 meters, making lambda= .5/12). Now, we simply plug in the values into the base formula, and we get our velocity at .45 met...
