FACTORS AFFECTING SPEED OF WATER WAVES-

HEIGHT OF OBJECT DROPPED

NAME-Rushil Bhandari
CLASS-7
SECTION-J

Introduction Knowledge-A wave's energy content is influenced by its height, wavelength, and breaking point in
addition to other factors. When waves of identical wavelengths fall back to sea level, the wave with the greater
amplitude will release more energy than the wave with the lesser amplitude. Energy (E) per square meter is
inversely related to height (H) squared: EH2. In other words, wave A has four times the energy per square meter of
sea surface as wave B if wave A is two times the height of wave B.

Testable Question-Does the height of object dropped affect the speed of the water wave?

Hypothesis Statement-If the object is dropped in the water from higher up then the speed of the water wave will
be faster.

Materials Required:
 A Tub of 11 inches wide
 1L of Water
 A scale of the height of 20 inches
 An Object weighing 20 grams
 Stopwatch to measure wave speed
 3 people, one is required to hold the scale, one to calculate the time using the stopwatch and one to
drop the object from different heights

Variables:

 Independent Variable: The height of the object dropped in the water

 Dependent Variable: Speed of water waves
 Controlled Variable: Amount of water. Type of liquid, tub, object, stopwatch and scale

Procedure (Method):
 1: Gather all materials (Tub,1L of water, scale, object, stopwatch)
 2: Pour 1L of water into the tub of width 11 inches.
 3: Hold the 20-inch scale exactly 1 inch away from the edge of the bucket
 4: Hold and drop weights from the height of 5, 10, 15 and 20 inches.
 5: Calculate time taking by using the stopwatch
 6: Find mean of time taken per height
 7: Convert time into speed by dividing distance from time.
 8: Analyze the results and form a conclusion.

Apparatus Used:
Sketch and label a diagram of your experimental set-up.
Observation: The higher up the object is dropped from the higher the frequency of the water waves.

Raw Data Collection:

Height (inches) Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3
5 inches 0.92 seconds 1.06 seconds 0.91 seconds
10 inches 0.81 seconds 0.68 seconds 0.87 seconds
15 inches 0.72 seconds 0.74 seconds 0.62 seconds
20 inches 0.53 seconds 0.38 seconds 0.61 seconds

Processed Data Collection:

Height of object dropped (inches) Average time taken (seconds)
5 inches 0.96333… seconds
10 inches 0.786666666666667 seconds
15 inches 0.69333… seconds
20 inches 0.506666666666667 seconds

Graph Representation:

X axis-Height of object dropped

Y axis-Time taken for wave to reach other side.

DATA TO PROVE CONCLUSIONS:

Speed per height:
5 inches-5 inches average time taken=0.96333 seconds
Speed=Distance/Time
Thus speed=10/0.96333
Therefore, average speed for 5 inches= inches per second=10.3806587566 inches per second

10 inches-10 inches average time taken=0.786666666666667

Speed=Distance/Time
Thus speed=10/0.786666666666667
Therefore, average speed for 10 inches=12.7118644068 inches per second
15 inches-15 inches average time taken=0.69333 seconds
Speed=Distance/Time
Thus speed=10/0.69333
Therefore, average speed for 15 inches=14.4231462651 inches per second

20 inches-20 inches average time taken=0.506666666666667 seconds

Speed=Distance/Time
Thus speed=10/0.506666666666667
Therefore, average speed for 20 inches=19.7368421053 inches per second

After finding out the speed for the different heights from where we dropped the object, I have realized my
hypothesis was correct that the higher the object is dropped from the faster the wave. I can prove that because
for 5 inches the speed is 10.3806587566 inches per second and for 20 inches the speed is 19.7368421053 inches
per second

CONCLUSION:
This experiment examined whether wave speed increases if the height of the object that is dropped into
the water is increased. Our hypothesis was: ‘If the height of the object dropped is increased, the speed
of the water waves will increase.’As we can see the time taken for the wave to reach the end of the tub
decreased significantly which means the wave speed did increase.