Wave Practice Problems

1. Sound travels at 5600 m/s through a steel rod. If the frequency of the wave is
2480 Hz, what is the wavelength of the wave?

2. What is the wavelength of a sound made by a violin string vibrating at 640 Hz if

the wave is traveling at 350 m/s?

3. The average person can hear sound waves ranging in frequency from about 20 Hz
to 20 kHz. Determine the wavelengths at these limits, taking the speed of sound
to be 340 m/s.

4. Three seconds after a gun is fired, the person who fired the gun hears an echo.
How far away was the surface that reflected the sound of the shot? Use 340 m/s
for the speed of sound.

5. Given a wave with a frequency of 50 Hz and a wavelength of 20 cm, find the

speed of the wave.

6. A sound wave has a frequency of 365 Hz. The wave is traveling across a room
transfers to the drapes which move and show a wavelength of 0.94 m. Find the
speed of the wave.

7. A wave on the lake has a wavelength of 2.00 m and has a frequency of 25 Hz.
What is the speed of the wave?

8. Green light has a wavelength of 530 nm or 0.000000530 m. The light has a

frequency of 5.66 x1014 Hz or 566000000000000 Hz. Find the speed of the light.

9. A wave on the ocean is observed to have a wavelength of 6.00 m and a frequency

of 50 Hz as seen on a marker buoy. Find the speed of the wave.

10. On the Salt Flats in Utah, the accepted speed of sound is about 343 m/s at 10:00
A.M. Find the wavelength of a sound wave with a frequency of 100 Hz.

11. A small child is bouncing up and down in pool creating waves. The speed of the
waves he creates is 10 m/s and has a frequency of 4 Hz. Find the wavelength for
the waves.

12. The branch from a tree near the shore of a lake is tapping the water in a periodic
pattern. The waves are observed to have a wavelength of 0.5 m and moving at 6.0
m/s. Find the frequency of the waves.