You will examine free and standing waves generated by a variety of techniques. Introduction Waves are one of the most obvious phenomena of the oceans.
Ocean waves are a form of kinetic energy that is often misunderstood, especially by mariners.
It is common to think only of waves that are visible, such as the surface waves one sees at the beach, but there are many other kinds of wave motion on Earth. For example, deep within the oceans there are internal waves, where water masses of different density move relative to each other in wave-like motion. Sound is yet another example of wave motion in the ocean. In this lab, we will use a long narrow aquarium known as a wave tank to investigate the forces that cause different types of wave motion and to understand the geometry and behavior of waves. An important feature of wave motion in water is that the water itself has little net movement.