Lab Testing Wave Interaction

Waves Lab- Testing Wave Interaction Maria Los, 1/15/10.7A

I. GUIDING QUESTION: How does an object lying on the water interact with a wave?
II.HYPOTHESIS: I think that the object will travel over the wave, almost going up and down but not moving in any direction. The same thing that happens when a boat is tied to the dock and there are small waves, making the boat bob up and down.

III. Exploration:
Materials:
· A rectangular tub
· A small float toy ( For this experiment I used a whale)
· Water
· Pencil
· A thick marker (the dry erase kind work the best)
. Your MYP Science Notebook
Procedure:
1. Take the rectangular tub and fill it up with about 1.5/2 inches of water.
2. Then place the rubber float toy in the middle of the tub.
3. Using the marker tap the water making waves and vary the speed of the waves.
4. Also try moving and tapping the marker closer and further away from the object.
5. Record all your discoveries.

IV. RECORD & ANALYZE: I found that when simply tapping the water slowly the object just went up and down in a stationary place, but as I quickened the pace the object started to move,the opposite direction from where the incident happened. But when I brought the pen up close to an object at a fast pace, it made they object move to the other side of the tub rapidly. Then when I moved the pen further away from the object at a face pace it moved but not quite as rapidly. The same thing happened when I tapped the marker at a slow pace at a further distance it made the object hardly moved but when I brought pen closer the object moved, not at a terribly fast pace but more then when it was at a distance.

A. Data Tables:

Test Number	Speed	Distance	Effect
1	Slow	Far	The object moves quickly but not as rapidly as possible.
2	Fast	Far	The object moves rapidly to the other side of the tank.
3	Slow	Close	When I tapped the water with a marker close to the object but slowly the object moved but so slowly that it was hardly noticeable.
4	Fast	Close	When I tapped the water with a marker close to the object but at a fast pace the object moved slightly so that it inched its way to the other side of the tub at somewhat of a snail speed.

To further understand the experiment I have drawn a little diagram of what should happen:


C. Analysis of Data: From the collection of this data I have figured that depending on the distance from the source to the object and the speed of the wave plus where the incidence is in terms of direction, the object will be pushed in a certain direction. It almost acts like power to the object, a good example would be a boat in the water when it is a windy day.

IV. Concept Acquisition (CONCLUSION): So now does an object laying on the water interact with the waves? According to the data we found waves interact with an object on the surface by making it move one way or another. The only variables that are changed in this are the speed and distance that is what effects how fast the object moves. From the experiment I have run I can conclude that waves interact with whatever object lies on the surface, it interacts with it by making the object move. If this wasn’t true then boats would not be affected by the big waves that are made during a storm that is another way waves interact with objects on the surface.
My prediction was partly correct because when the object was being pushed by very far away waves that were quite slow did in fact move so slightly that they appeared to be going only up and down.

V. Concept Application (FURTHER INQUIRY): I think if there is anything wrong with my data it would probably be due to be actually performing the experiment incorrectly, but I don’t think my data is incorrect. Something I could do next time is maybe test different objects to see how they react to a wave. Something I could look into further is does the shape or length of an object effect how it travels over the water when there are waves? Is it simply the same or does it somehow effect it?