The effect of water depth on the speed of water waves

10th grade (MYP year 5)

Physics design lab
Submission date: Nov26th, 2019

Introduction:
Sitting on a beach and observing the waves, have you ever noticed the movement of a debris or a
piece of wreckage floating atop of a water wave crest towards the shore? Did you observe the rate
of its movement when approaching shallow water by the shore? To surface waves that move in a
mixture of longitudinal and transverse waves, when approaching a shallow place, the speed of
water waves decreases due to a ratio of the water's depth to the wavelength (amplitude) of the
wave. Different factors affect the speed of water waves, like

1. Wavelength
2. frequency
3. medium
4. temperature
5. depth

In this experiment, the effect of water depth on the speed of water waves will be investigated.

Research question:

What is the effect of water depth (d/cm) in a ripple tank on the speed of water waves (v