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Physics Question

Two people are fishing from small boats located 28m apart. Waves pass through the water, and each person's boat bobs up and down 15 times in 1.0 min. At a time when one boat is on a crest, the other is in a trough, and there is one crest between the two boats. What is the speed of the waves???

I am pretty sure you use the universal wave equation to find the answer, but i am really stuck!!!

Duckie Sun 20/02/05 19:52

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brachiopod
Sun 20/02/05
20:30

I presume that by "bobs up and down 15 times a minute" you (or your homework question) mean each boat 'completes one up and one down motion 15 times a minute" which is a frequency of 0.25 Hz.

As one boat is on a crest, and the other in a trough, and there is one crest between them, this represents one and a half wavelengths. Since they are 28m apart, this implies that one wavelength = 18 and 2/3 m.

You now have the frequency and wavelength, so calculating the wave velocity should now be straighforward.

bernardo
Mon 21/02/05
00:49

280 metres per minute.

NetSquirrel
Tue 22/02/05
16:24

Not that it makes any difference but:

http://tinyurl.com/4vbrq

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