Question

Water waves in a shallow dish are $6cm$ long. At one point, the water moves up and down at a rate of $4.8$ oscillations/s. What is the time period of the water waves?

• A. $0.280s$
• B. $0.408s$
• C. $0.208s$
• D. $0.308s$

Answer 1

The correct option is C $0.208s$

The frequency (f) of a wave is the number of full wave forms generated per second. This is the same as the number of repetitions per second or the number of oscillations per second.
Time Period (T) is the number of seconds per waveform, or the number of seconds per oscillation. It is clear that frequency and period are reciprocals.
That is, $T=\frac{1}{f}$
$\frac{1}{f}=\frac{1}{4.8}=0.208seconds$
Hence, the time period of the water wave is 0.208 seconds.