What is the wavelength of the waves you create in a swimming pool if you splash your hand at a rate of 2.00 Hz and the waves propagate at 0.800 m/s?

Video Transcript

This is College Physics Answers with Shaun Dychko. If you splash water in a swimming pool with a frequency of 2.00 hertz so you splash it twice per second and the waves propagate through the water at 0.800 meters per second, you can find the wavelength of the waves you are making by using the wave equation. So the speed of a wave equals its frequency multiplied by its wavelength and so we can solve for λ by dividing both sides by frequency f. So λ is the speed divided by frequency so that's 0.800 meters per second divided by 2.00 hertz which is 0.400 meters.