Question

A fisherman notices that wave crests pass the bow of his anchored boat every 4.4 s. he measures the distance between two crests to be 9.5 m. how fast are the waves traveling?

Answer 1

The distance between two crests is 9.5 m, this means the wavelength of the waves is

`\lambda=9.5 m`
The fisherman also notices that crests pass every 4.4 s, so the frequency of the wave

`f=4.4 s^(-1) = 4.4 Hz`
Therefore, we can use the basic relationship between frequency and wavelength of a wave to find the speed of the waves:

`v=f \lambda=(4.4 Hz)(9.5 m)=41.8 m/s`