Scouts at a camp shake the rope bridge they have just crossed and observe the wave crests to be 8.00 m apart. If they shake it the bridge twice per second, what is the propagation speed of the waves?

Video Transcript

This is College Physics Answers with Shaun Dychko. Wave Speed is frequency times wave length and these kids are shaking the rope bridge at two shakes per second. They see that the wave crests are eight meters apart so that is the wave length then. So two times eight gives 16 meters per second is the speed of the waves.