Back to 16.2 Mathematics of Waves

16.2 Exercise 17

Avg difficulty 2.5

A swimmer in the ocean observes one day that the ocean surface waves are periodic and resemble a sine wave. The swimmer estimates that the vertical distance between the crest and the trough of each wave is approximately 0.45 m, and the distance between each crest is approximately 1.8 m. The swimmer counts that 12 waves pass every two minutes. Determine the simple harmonic wave function that would describes these waves.

OpenStax University Physics Volume 1, 16.2 Mathematics of Waves, exercise 17

AI Tutor

Adapted from University Physics Volume 1 © 2016 Rice University. Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Source: University Physics Volume 1. Imported at revision db44eb9.