As someone who never taught physics but has raced boats for many years - the speed of a wave in water in knots is 1.34 * sqrt(L) where L is the wavelength. I don't recall the constants in metric.
This is independent of water depth - until the water gets below the wavelength. So keep the water to a decent depth and it'll be easier to understand.
You could of course have fun with soliton waves...
Andy
I reckon they should try this -
#Paul
"In fact, an even shallower Fishpond would pro- vide a better match to this criterion, but since water has a signi?cant surface tension, this makes covering the centre re- gion problematic."
Looks like you blew a chance to get a water-ethanol mix on the lab budget...
Thomas Prufer
Does it have to be transparent? Garden centres sell plastic trays, which can be quite large for potting up plants. I have on that is 18" x 36" approx.
Jonathan
Yes you want something transparent. You shine a light through it and then you can see the wave patterns.
Typically in a school setting you stick it on an OHP and project the pattern onto a screen, Alternatively, you raise the ripple tank on something transparent and project a light down through it and view the patterns below.
Xmas science lecture? How big? Look for cheap large wall clocks with the sort of plastic front that has a deep lip 1-2cm.
A wall height of 5-6cm would be tricky without making it. Perspex sheet would be my choice to make one 5cm x 1cm thick strip offcuts ought to do for the sides. Solvent glue will give perfect results with practice or you could just use clear epoxy which is easier to work with.
It isn't like it has to withstand any serious water pressure.
I turned out that the surface tension helped - it made the wave speed faster, so that the ripples travelled further before losses made them fade away, and so we saw more recurrences. The simplicity and safety of water, along with this surface tension effect, made it by far our preferred choice.
#Paul
replying to Brian-Gaff, richard wrote: Some chocolates come packaged in transparent boxes. I used one to make a simple ripple tank.
Some chips come warpped in newspapers. I used one to make a papier mache puppet head
This post must be very old, as I don't even recall making it.
Brian
Injection-Date: Sun, 25 Oct 2015
There you are then, I cleared out my archives of that year six months back. good for recycling brain cells. Brian
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