Question

Suppose you watch a leaf bobbing up and down as ripples pass it by in a pond. You notice that it does two full up and down bobs each second. What is true of the ripples on the pond?

Answer 1

The frequency of the ripples is 2Hz, and their period is 0.5 seconds.

Step-by-step explanation:

Since the ripples on the pond are making the leaf oscillate up and down at a rate of two times per second, we can calculate the period T and the frequency f of the ripples on the pon
`T=(1)/(0.5Hz) =`d.

The frequency, by definition, is the number of waves per unit of time. In this case, we have two waves per second, so the frequency is 2s⁻¹, or 2Hz.

The period is the inverse of the frequency, so

`T=(1)/(2Hz) =0.5s`

Then, the period is equal to 0.5 seconds.