Waves Lab

Page One

Page Two

Data Analysis: What patterns or relationships do you see in your data table/
sketches/images?
I never knew that waves could possibly bounce back off something, although in these tests we could barely see it because the drops from the dropper didn't carry enough energy. Things like the lay-dough sticks only stopped the wave because they didn't have enough energy if I was using a larger dropper then the waves would have gone around the Play-dough. With the wave and the sheet of paper the waves simply went under it, although I didn't see it I knew that that would have been the case with a larger piece of paper.

Conclusion: What do you conclude about the behavior of waves in the various
situations you created today? Can you answer the guiding questions now?
When Tyler and did this lab, I think both of us found that water does all sorts of things that you would never expect, after close inspection. To answer the guiding question, before this lab I  thought you get ripples after you drop a stone in the water, just because you do but now I found out that it is actually the energy brought from the disturbance, the pebble spreading outwards in every direction.

Further Inquiry: Based on your observations today you will DESIGN YOUR OWN
LAB.

Predict what would happen if you could send a steady train of uniform waves the
length of the tank for an extended time. How would you design a lab for this? How
would a steady drip or stream of water affect the waves patterns? How does the
frequency of drops affect the patterns of the waves? Also, what if you changed the
height of the dropping point? How would this affect the properties of the wave?
What if you used a bigger dropper? How would that affect the properties of the
wave?

The waves would slowly lose energy, bouncing back and fourth until you couldn't even see them. The  higher the dropper in the more ampitude and the higher the frequency because the drop gathers more energy. If you had a stream of water it would not make steady waves, but random splashes that wouldn't go anywhere.