Question

A wave on Beaver Dam Lake passes by two docks that are 40.0 m apart. If there is a crest at each dock and another three crests between the two docks, determine the wavelength.

Answer 1

Given,

The distance between the two docks, d=40.0 m

The wavelength is described as the distance between the two adjacent crests.

Here λ is the wavelength.

From the figure, there are 4 wavelengths between the docks.

Thus the wavelength of the wave is given by,

$\lambda=\frac{d}{4}$

On substituting the known values,

$\begin{gathered} \lambda=\frac{40}{4} \\ =10\text{ m} \end{gathered}$

Thus the wavelength is 10 m