What is the frequency of a wave that travels 100 meters in 5 seconds?
1 Answer
The given information allows us to calculate the speed of the wave;
but not the frequency.
Explanation:
If the wave travels 100 meters in 5 seconds
then its speed is
However in order to calculate the frequency we would also need to know the wavelength.
The standard formula is
#color(white)("XXX")f=v/lamda#
where#f# is the frequency,#v# is the speed, and#lamda# is the wave length.
Example 1:
If
#lamda=10" meters"# (and#v# is the previously calculated#20 m/s# )
then#f=(20 m/s)/(10 m)=2 "cycles"/"sec." (or 2 " Hz")#
Example 2:
If
#lamda=0.1 " m"# (and#v# is the previously calculated#20 m/s# )
then#f=(20 m/s)/(0.1 m) =200 "cycles"/"sec." (or 200 " Hz")#
So we can see that without knowing the wavelength we can not get a single solution for the frequency.
At best in this case we could say that the frequency is
