Question

A branch from a tree falls into a shallow pool of water nearby. The branch causes waves in the water. The wave travels to the left a distance of 3m before hitting the side of a docked ship and is reflected. The wave takes 5s to travel the distance ab to the ship and to return back to ab. Calculate the speed of the wave?

Answer 1

The speed of the wave in question is calculated using the formula "speed = distance / time" and is found to be 1.2 meters per second (m/s) since the wave traveled a total distance of 6 meters in 5 seconds.

Step-by-step explanation:

The student is asking about calculating the speed of a wave that has been created by a branch falling into water and then reflecting off the side of a docked ship. Since the wave travels to and fro in a total time of 5s and the distance to the ship (one way) is 3m, the total distance traveled by the wave (back and forth) would be 2 * 3m = 6m. To find the speed (v) of the wave, we use the formula speed = distance / time. Plugging in the numbers, we get that the speed of the wave is 6 m / 5 s = 1.2 m/s.