How to find wave speed from frequency and wave length.
Wave Speed = Frequency * Wavelength
(Note: Make sure you convert the unit of frequency to ‘Hz’ and the unit of wavelength to ‘m’)
Yes you can simply use this equation, but understanding the principle will make it much easier for you, and its simple!
Imagine instead of calculating the speed of a wave you are calculating your walking speed. You would need to know the number of steps you take per second, and the stride length of each step.
If you multiplied the number of steps you take per second with the length of each stride you would know how much distance you cover per second. Simple right?
Well its exactly the same with wave speed, where:
Frequency = Number of strides per second
Wavelength = Length of each stride
So hopefully that equation makes more sense now :)
So if a wave has a frequency of 100Hz and a wavelength of 40m, you can think of it as if, ou are taking 100 steps per second and each step is 40m.
So…
Wave Speed = 40 * 100 = 4000m/s
