A skipper on a boat notices wave crests passing his anchor chain every 9 s. He estimates the distance between wave crests to be 15 m. He also correctly estimates the speed of the waves. What is this speed?
Wavelenght* frequency= wave speed
remember that frequency here is 1wave/9sec or 1/9
dvf
To find the speed of the waves, we can use the formula:
wave speed = wavelength × frequency
In this case, we have the frequency of the waves, which is 1 wave every 9 seconds. So, the frequency is 1/9.
Now, we know the distance between wave crests, which is the wavelength. Given that the wavelength is estimated to be 15 meters, we can substitute these values into the formula:
wave speed = 15 meters × (1/9 waves/second)
Calculating the value:
wave speed = 15 meters × 1/9
wave speed = 15/9 meters/second
wave speed ≈ 1.67 meters/second
Therefore, the speed of the waves is approximately 1.67 meters per second.