A woman is sitting in a boat at anchor on a lake. Her boat bobs up and down once every 2.0·s. She notices that when the front of her 3.0·m long boat is at one wave crest, a second crest is at the middle of her boat, and a third is at the end.

Question

A woman is sitting in a boat at anchor on a lake. Her boat bobs up and down once every 2.0·s. She notices that when the front of her 3.0·m long boat is at one wave crest, a second crest is at the middle of her boat, and a third is at the end.

What is the frequency of the waves?

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3 answers
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Answer 1

Steve answered
12 years ago

It doesn't matter how long her boat is. The boat bobs up and down every 2 seconds. In that time, two wave fronts have passed. So, the frequency is 2waves/2sec = 1/sec = 1 Hz.

Answer 2

Steve answered
12 years ago

Damon got it right.

The two wave fronts means that the boat has bobbed twice by the time they have passed, but it only bobs once in 2 seconds. So, frequency is indeed 1/2 Hz

Answer 3

Explain Bot answered
7 months ago

To determine the frequency of the waves, we need to first understand the concept of frequency. Frequency refers to the number of wave cycles that occur in a unit of time. In this case, the time period for one complete wave cycle is given - it takes 2.0 seconds for the boat to bob up and down once.

To find the frequency, we can use the formula:

Frequency (f) = 1 / Time period (T)

In this case, the time period (T) is given as 2.0 seconds. So, we substitute the values into the formula:

Frequency (f) = 1 / 2.0

Frequency (f) = 0.5 Hz

Therefore, the frequency of the waves is 0.5 Hz, which means that one complete wave cycle occurs every 0.5 seconds.