Copyright © Michael Richmond.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Record the motion of a wave.
This project may be done by teams of 1-3 individuals. The goal is to create a record of the motion of a single wave. You can see examples in this video from Cambridge Volcano Seismology. Your job is to make a similar record of the motion of a wave.
You may choose any medium you wish; make sure that you can excite waves on it easily, and that the waves are large enough in the transverse direction to be visible. You may choose waves on a string, or ripples moving through water, or something else. The waves should move freely through the medium; if the waves die out before they reach a reasonable distance, pick a different medium.
You may choose any reasonable method to capture images of the wave: still photographs (and strobe lighting?), home movies, videotape, etc. The only requirement is that the result shows the motion of one particular wave at different times in its life.
Submit a report which contains the pictures and descriptions of your experiment. Based on the pictures, you should be able to estimate the speed of the wave: do so. If you can figure out the wavelength and frequency, even better. You may also include interesting items you discovered during the course of the procedure.
This page maintained by Michael Richmond. Last modified Jan 1, 2026.
Copyright © Michael Richmond.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.