Waves Lab

I.  Guiding Question: How do waves change when they move over an object?

II.HYPOTHESIS:  I think that when a wave moves over a smooth object the wave length will get shorter and the amplitude will get higher.  When it moves over a rougher object I think that the amplitude will get shorter and its wave length will get much shorter also.

III.  Exploration-
Materials:Tray, water, smoother clay, rough clay,

Procedure: Test how waves’ amplitudes and wave lengths change when they are forced to travel over a smooth surface and a rough surface. First I tested what the average amplitude was with no objects, then I tested how waves amplitude changes when they travel over a smooth object then over a rough object.
        

IV.  RECORD & ANALYZE
A.

Object	Amplitude
No object	44 mm
Smooth Object	52 mm
Rough Object	47 mm

B. On my first test I tested what the amplitude would be when there is no object to pass over. I put the water at approximately 17mm doing a sideways motion the amplitude was 44mm. Then I tested with a smooth piece of clay for the waves to go over with the same amount of water the amplitude was 52mm. On the last test I tested how the waves’ amplitude would change when it moved over a rough object the amplitude was 47mm. Out of all the tests it seemed that the waves amplitude was highest when forced to go over a smooth object. When the wave travelled over something it’s amplitude was higher than when it didn’t have to travel over any object. I think that my tests were mostly accurate because I tested many times before I settled on a definitive result. It was hard to see the amplitude because sometimes it would go high and sometimes it wouldn’t.


IV.  Concept Acquisition (CONCLUSION): Throughout all my tests I noticed a lot of things that I could never have predicted. My hypothesis was somewhat correct but when I saw that the rough object actually had a higher amplitude than without a barrier I was very surprised. I was right about the amplitude of the smooth abject because it went higher just like I predicted. The wave length was something that I couldn’t test when I started testing because of the way I was creating the waves, moving the tank side-to-side. The wave length was something I could only guess and would, therefore, be very inaccurate so in the end I really couldn’t test it. I think that my data was accurate and maybe was off by a millimeter or two but was in the right general area.