Motion of the Ocean - Unit 9

Today we were introduced to waves and wavelengths. From chemistry, I was somewhat familiar with what waves were, and how they contributed to our world. However, there were a lot more aspects and details that we didn't learn, that make "waves" a topic a little more difficult to understand.

I found that when Mr. Blake talked about the ocean's waves in terms of the physics waves, I understood the whole concept a lot better. Below, I will define words that are affiliated with waves, but in terms of the ocean water.

Frequency: The number of waves it takes per one second.
Hertz: Units of frequency (if 3 small waves came in one second that would be 3 Hz. # of cycles/secs)
Amplitude: The height of a wave measuring from sea level.
Wave speed: How fast the wave comes
Wavelength: How long the wave is.



Interference is when two waves meet in the ocean. There are two types of interference: Constructive and destructive. Constructive is when two waves coming from opposite directions meet and create a very large wave, whereas destructive is when two waves coming from above and below meet, creating a completely flat sea level when the leave.

The girl in the picture below is cruising in the water with her doughnut floaty. If 2 waves pass her in three seconds, the speed of the wave can be measured as followed:

V= ƒλ
V = 3/2 Hz(2.5 m)
V=1.5(2.5)
V= 3.75 m/s

What is it's period, or the time it takes for one complete cycle to occur?
T=1/f
T = 1/1.5
T = 2/3, 0.67 sec