Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Waves Experiment Reflection

In science class, we did a very intriguing lab/experiment about waves. We would drop water from certain heights and see how it causes waves in the water below. We would also place barriers and other objects to see if the waves would bounce off. These are some materials we needed:

1) 1 Pan
2) 1 Eyedropper
3) Water supply
4) 2 Clay Bars
5) Various Objects such as-
-> Toilet Paper
-> Cork

Procedure:

1) Gather All Materials
2) Put some water in the pan
3) Put some water in the eyedropper
4) Hold the eyedropper
5) Release a drop of water
6) Place various barricades and objects and then repeat steps 1-5
7) Record Results

Results:
I had various results that depended on height and any barriers/obstacles. I think the barriers and obstacles made a bug difference on how the wave ripples looked. Once they hit the barriers/obstacles, they bounce right back. While doing this lab I learned many things. I learned what frequency, wavelength, and amplitude mean. Frequency is how often the waves occur. Amplitude is the height of a certain wave that you are analyzing. Wavelength is the distance from one wave crest to another



In this image I made above, blue represent water, black is wave direction, and red is the water drop.