Universal Wave Equation Worksheet
Show your work on a separate sheet.
1. A radio station broadcasts at a frequency of 1.00 x 106 Hz. If the speed of this wave is 3.00 x 108m/s, what is its
wavelength? (3.00x102 m)
2. Given a wavelength of 2.68cm and a wave speed of 75cm/s, what is the frequency of the wave? ( 28Hz)
3. A total of 9.5 waves break on the beach in 1.0min. What is the frequency in Hz of these waves? (0.16Hz)
4. A ripple tank produces waves with a frequency of 5.2 Hz and a wavelength of 14.8cm. What is the speed of its waves?
(0.770 m/s)
5. A form of energy travels as a wave 4.60 m in 2.00 s. What is the speed of the wave? (2.30m/s)
6. Certain light waves have a frequency of 3.95 x 105 Hz & a wavelength of 759m. What is the speed of light? (3.00 x 108 m/s)
7. A person in a life jacket being circled by sharks in the ocean notices that after a wave crest passes by, ten more crests
pass in a time of 120s. What is the period of the wave? (12.0s)
8. A certain ultrasound wave has a speed of 1458m/s. The frequency of the wave is 86.3 kHz, what is its wavelength? (0.0169m)
9. A radio wave, an electromagnetic wave, has a frequency of 99.5 MHz (or 9.95 x 107 Hz). What is its wavelength?
(3.02m)
Sound travels at a speed of 343m/s in air at 20oC. The wavelength of a sound wave 1.31m.
Find the period of the wave. (3.81 x 10 -3 s )
A sound wave produced by a car backfiring 515m away is heard 1.50s later.
a) What is the speed of sound in air? 343m/s
b) The sound wave has a frequency of 436 Hz. What is its period? 2.2x10 -3 s
c) What is its wavelength? 0.787m
A hiker slips and falls into a deep valley screaming all the way down, the opposite side of the valley is 685m away.
His partner hears the echo of the scream 4.00s later.
a) What is the speed of sound in air? (343m/s )
b) The wavelength of the sound is 0.750m, what is the frequency? (457Hz)
c) What is the period of the wave? (2.19 x 10 -3 s)
9. A certain red light has a wavelength of 0.652 m (micrometer) or 652 nm. Find the frequency of red light in Hz & in MHz.
(4.6 x 1014 Hz and 4.6 x 108 MHz)
12. A visible light wave travels through the air at a speed of 3.0 x 108 m/s. Red light has a wavelength of about 6.6 x10 -7m.
What is the frequency of red light? (4.5 x 1014 Hz)
13. The rightmost key on a piano produces a sound wave that has a frequency of 4185.6 Hz. Assuming the speed of sound in air is
343m/s, find the corresponding wavelength. (0.0819m)
14. A wave has a frequency of 45Hz and a speed of 22m/ s.
Determine, if possible, a) its period, b) its wavelength. A) .022s B) .48m
15. A wave has a frequency of 5.0x10 -1 Hz and a speed of 3.3x10 -1 m/ s. What is the wavelength of this wave?
(0.66m)
17. A water wave has a wavelength of 5.0m and a speed of 2.5m/ s. What is the period of this wave? (2.0s)
19. If sound waves travel at 335m/s, what is the wavelength of sound that has a period of 1.00 x 10 -2s? (3.35m)
21. While floating on your air mattress on a lake, you note that you bob up and down 40 times in 5.0 min., and you estimate that the
distance between wave crests is 4.0m. What is the speed of these waves? (0.53m/s)
22. A light wave has a speed of 3.00x10 8m/s. If the length of this wave is 5.00x10 -7m, what is its period? (1.67x10 -15 s)
6. If the speed of great surfing waves is 50m/s and the frequency is 33Hz, what is the wavelength?
(1.5m)