Answer to Question #140188 in Chemistry for Kandice

Question

A wave has a wavelength of 0.05m and a wave speed of 10 m/s. What is the frequency of the wave?

Answer 1

The wavelength $\lambda$ is a distance between the two nearest corresponding points of a wave (two maxima, two minima, etc.). The wave speed $v$ is a distance travelled by a given point of the wave in a given amount of time. In its turn, the wave frequency $\nu$ is the occurence of the corresponding points of the wave per unit of time.

Thus, it is obvious that wavelength, wave frequency and speed are linked:

$\lambda = \frac{v}{\nu} .$

Therefore, the frequency of the wave that has a wavelength of 0.05m and a wave speed of 10 m/s is:

$\nu = \frac{v}{\lambda} = 200$ s^-1.

Answer: the frequency of the wave is 200 s^-1, or 200 Hz.