Experiment 3 : Speed of Transverse Wave

In this experiment, the long spring was used to determine the relationship between frequency and wavelength(λ). With the provided tools, a long spring, a stop watch, the procedures had to be outlined so that the admired results could be obtained. Therefore, in order to compare, the wavelength was changed from 6m to 3m, then finally to 2m. On the other side, in order to obtain the frequency of the wave, the time need to be recorded for each trial. After that, the equation T=1/f  will be applied. How this experiment worked was two people holding each end of the spring and one holding the spring steadily and the other person swinging the spring. When the wave was created, the other person would then record the time as the other person counts the number of  desired wave. This same process would then be applied to all three different length of the spring. After both the wavele

Tools used for this experiment (long spring, long ruler, stopwatch)

The wavelength was measured for each trial 

The wave was produced by being swung by one end of the spring

Data recorded after three trial which had different length of the wavelength

λ(m)	T(s)	1/T=f(Hz)	λ×f (m/s)
6.00±0.05	9.30±0.05	0.106±0.003	0.636±0.003
3.00±0.05	4.40±0.05	0.227±0.0035	0.681±0.005
2.00±0.05	2.56±0.03	0.391±0.005	0.782±0.001

When  λ (m) was multiplied by the frequency, which has the unit as 1/m, the unit turned out to be m/s, which is also velocity's unit. Therefore, v= λ*f.  

When the data of λ and T was put into graph, the obtained line was linear (if the slight uncertainty was neglected). The obtained function would be y=0.5973x+0.4291. The slope 0.5973 was not apart when it is compared with the result of λ×f .The slope (which is y/x) also equal to λ (m)-->y divided by Time(s)--->x. Then again the obtained unit was m/s so that it proves that the slope could be used to compare with the result obtained from λ×f.

However, the value of slope was 0.5973 and the average result obtained from λ×f, (0.636+0.681+0.782)/3=0.700 still resulted in the error of 14.7% <<<[(0.5973-0.700)/0.700x100%]

Factors which caused the error could be contributed by the insufficient precision of the measurements. The measurement of the spring's length, or the recorded time could both contribute to this percent error. Spring's distortion could also contribute to the percent error. Besides, the energy the person applied to swing the spring could also be one of the contributors to the percent error. Without all the factors, the percent error could be reduced to within 10%