Question

A wave traveling on a Slinky® that is stretched to 4 m takes 4.97 s to travel the length of the Slinky and back again.(a) What is the speed (in m/s) of the wave? m/s

Answer 1

1.61 m/s

Step-by-step explanation

Given:

• The distance the Slinky is stretched, d = 4 m

,

• The time it takes for the wave to travel the length mentioned before and back, t = 4.97 s

Find:

• The speed of the wave, v

We know that the wave takes 4.97 seconds to travel the 4 meters the Slinky was stretched and back, so it travels a total of 8 meters in that time. This means that the speed of the wave is,

`v=(2d)/(t)=(8m)/(4.97s)\approx1.61m/s`

Hence, the speed of the wave is 1.61 m/s.