Question

If the frequency of a wave is 2.0 cycles per second and its speed is 0.04 meter per second,what is the wavelength of the wave?

Answer 1

`(0.04 m/s)/(2.0 s^(-1))=0.02 m`

To solve this problem, start with the fact that the desired answer (wavelength) has units of meters (`m`). Therefore, you will want the wave speed (`004 m/s`) in the numerator of the expression in order to get `m` in the numerator of the answer.

The next challenge is to get `s` out of the denominator. You can do this by dividing by the frequency (`2.0 s^(-1)`), because diving by `s^(-1)` is equivalent to multiplying by `s`. In other words, a unit that lies in the denominator of the denominator is equivalent to being in the numerator.

Write out the entire expression and verify that the units all cancel. If you included "cycles" as a unit, your answer should be in units of "m/cycle".