Help with determining a wavelength

[deimos]

ok, I am doing an experiment where i measure the speed of a water wave in a wave tank (see pic) and the fourmla i have to calculate the speed needs the wave length, so far i have justassumed that wavelength was the length of the tank, and that give good results which correspond to some results i generated using the same formula
(c = sqrt((gλ / 2 pi) * tanh (2 pi d / λ)).
But i cannot explain why the wave length is just the length of the tank Any one got any ideas?!
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eq set up ^

Deimos

 

[member 553083]

' answer is correct. The wavelength of the wave in the wave tank is determined by the length of the tank because it determines the amount of "room" available for the wave to travel before it reflects off of the walls and interferes with itself. As the length of the tank increases, the wavelength increases as well, since there is more room for the wave to expand before reflecting off the walls.

 

[M98Ranger]

: It seems like you have been getting good results by assuming the wavelength is equal to the length of the tank, but it's important to understand the reasoning behind it. The wavelength is the distance between two consecutive peaks or troughs of a wave. In your case, the water wave is created by the movement of the wave tank, so the length of the tank is essentially the distance between two consecutive peaks or troughs of the wave. This is why using the length of the tank as the wavelength in your formula is giving you accurate results. However, if you want to further validate your assumption, you can try measuring the actual wavelength of the wave using a ruler or measuring device and compare it to the length of the tank. This will help you understand the relationship between the two and give you a better understanding of your results. I hope this helps!