Velocity of a wave in a tank at varying depths of water

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AS Physics coursework

Gregory Lewis 12B

Velocity of a wave in a tank at varying depths of water

An investigation into how the velocity of a wave is affected by varying the depth of the water it travels through.

A tray was filled to a certain depth with water and one end raised to 45mm above floor level. The tray was placed on a folder 45mm high for each experiment so the height from which that end of the tray is dropped remains the same throughout the series of experiments. The sliding out of the folder from under the tray and the starting of the stopwatch was simultaneous so the delay in starting the stopwatch due to human reaction time was approximately cancelled out by the time taken for the tray to fall the 45mm from atop the folder. A folder was selected to hold up the tray because it could be removed, thus allowing the tray the fall, without changing the height of the fall or creating small ripples across the surface of the water which could compromise the reliability of the investigation

Once the wave started it was allowed to traverse the length of the tray 4 times before the stopwatch was stopped at the point at which the wave was judged to have reached the same side of the tray from which it had commenced 4 lengths earlier. The wave was allowed to traverse the tray 4 times as opposed to just once because the percentage error was smaller since the error in measurement is fixed and we are measuring over a larger distance.

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The tray was first filled to a depth of 1cm for the first series of experiments then the depth of the water was increased by 1cm for every series of experiments thereafter. The level of the water was increased to 6cm in depth so 6 different series of experiments were made. The independent variable was the depth of the water with the dependant variable being the speed of the resulting wave.

The equipment

1 x steel ruler: accurate to ± 1mm used to measure depth of water, height of drop and length of tray

1 x plastic ...

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