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Period, Frequency, Wavelength, and Wave Speed Practice Worksheet

Directions: Show all necessary work and steps on a separate sheet of paper. EM waves (radio, micro, x ray, UV, visible,
infrared) travel at the speed of light: 3 x 10 8 m/s. Sound waves travel at 340 m/s (unless said otherwise). Answers are in italicized
parenthesis so you can check your answer. Show all necessary steps (GUESS method).

1) A swing has a period of 3 seconds. What is its frequency? (0.33 Hz)

2) A bouncing basketball has a period of 0.7 seconds. What is its frequency? (1.43 Hz)
3) A TV has a refresh frequency of 60 Hz. What is its period? (0.02 s)
4) A clock ticks 3 times every 5 seconds. What is its frequency? Period? (0.60 Hz, 1.67 s)
5) A man exercising can do 15 pushups in 20 seconds. What is his frequency? Period? (0.75 Hz, 1.33 s)
6) If 10 waves hit a dock every 16 seconds, what is the period and frequency of each wave? (1.60 s, 0.63 Hz)
7) If the waves from the previous problem are 10 meters apart, what is the speed of each wave? (6.25 m/s)
8) Red light has longer wavelength than violet light. Which has greater frequency? Explain. (Violet, f=1/)
9) Wavelengths of visible light range from 400 nm to 750 nm. Convert these to m. (4 x 10-7 m, 7.5 x 10-7 m)
10) A wave has a length of 450 cm. Convert that to m. (4.5 m)
11) A wave has a length of 7 inches. Convert that to m. (1 m = 39.37 inches) (0.18 m)
12) What is the velocity of a wave with a frequency of 760 Hz and a wavelength of .45 cm? (3.42 m/s)
13) Standing 170 m away from a wall, Noah yells and hears his echo 1 s later. What is the speed of the sound wave? (340 m/s)
14) What is the wavelength of a sound wave with a frequency of 50 Hz? (Speed of sound is 342 m/s) (6.84 m)
15) Waves in a lake are 6 m apart and pass a raft every 2 s. What is the speed of the waves? (3 m/s)
16) What is the frequency of a pendulum that is moving at 30 m/s with a wavelength of .35 m? (85.71 Hz)
17) A wave with a frequency of 60 Hz travels through rubber with a wavelength of 0.9 m. What is the speed of the wave? (54 m/s)
18) What is the wavelength of a sound wave moving at 340 m/s with a frequency of 256 Hz? (1.33 m)
19) A wave in a string has a wavelength of 0.10 m and a frequency of 7 Hz. Calculate the speed of the wave. (0.70 m/s)
20) A sound wave in a steel rail has a frequency of 620 Hz and a wavelength of 10.5 m. What is the speed of sound in steel? (6510 m/s)
21) A wave on a guitar string travels at a speed of 200 m/s. Calculate the wavelength of an “A” note at 440 Hz. (0.45 m)
22) Determine the frequency of a microwave (which travels at the speed of light) that is 0.06 m in length. (5 x 109 Hz)
23) A wave generator produces 10 wave pulses per second. If the speed of each wave is 3 m/s, what is the length of each wave? (0.30 m)
24) A buoy bobs in the ocean from waves that are 2.5 m apart passing the buoy at 4 m/s. What is the frequency of the waves? (1.60 Hz)
25) A low frequency radio wave has a frequency of 250,000 Hz. What is its wavelength? (1200 m)
26) A certain wave in the EM spectrum has a frequency of 2 x 10 12 Hz. What is its wavelength? (1.5 x 10-4 m)
27) All electromagnetic waves travel at the speed of light (300,000,000 m/s). Calculate the wavelength of each of the following types of
EM waves: radio waves – 88,000,000 Hz, visible light – 600,000,000,000 Hz, X rays – 3,000,000,000,000,000,000 Hz.
(3.41 m 5 x 10 -5 m 1 x 10 -10 m)
28) Cicadas (bugs) produce a buzzing sound with a wavelength of 2.69 m. Through air they travel at 346 m/s. What is the frequency of
the sound they produce? What is its period? (128.62 Hz, 0.0077 s)
29) One of the largest organ pipes is 38.6 feet long and produces a sound wave with a wavelength of 10.6 m. Assuming sound travels at
346 m/s through air, What is the frequency of the sound this organ pipe produces? (32.64 Hz)
30) An earthquake generates very low frequency shock waves (about 0.050 Hz). If they travel at 8000 m/s, what is their wavelength?
31) What is the relationship between wavelength and wave velocity? (1.65 X 105 m)
32) What is the relationship between frequency and wavelength?