Physics Question

[Duckie]

Two people are fishing from small boats located 28m apart. Waves pass through the water, and each person's boat bobs up and down 15 times in 1.0 min.  At a time when one boat is on a crest, the other is in a trough, and there is one crest between the two boats.  What is the speed of the waves???

I am pretty sure you use the universal wave equation to find the answer, but i am really stuck!!!

[brachiopod]

I presume that by "bobs up and down 15 times a minute" you (or your homework question) mean each boat 'completes one up and one down motion 15 times a minute" which is a frequency of 0.25 Hz.

As one boat is on a crest, and the other in a trough, and there is one crest between them, this represents one and a half wavelengths. Since they are 28m apart, this implies that one wavelength = 18 and 2/3 m.

You now have the frequency and wavelength, so calculating the wave velocity should now be straighforward.

[bernardo]

280 metres per minute.

[NetSquirrel]

Not that it makes any difference but:

http://tinyurl.com/4vbrq