You are creating a transverse wave in a rope by shaking your hand from side to side. Without changing the distance that your hand moves, you begin to shake it slower and slower. What happens to the wavelength?

Question

it decreases

Answer 1

Doesn't the wave equation...

Frequency*wavelength=velocity of waves?

frequency decreases, and velocity stays the same....

Answer 2

To find the wavelength you divide velocity over frequency

Answer 3

ok i understand what you said but we've estanblished that the frequency decreases. i don't understand what velocity has to do with anything b/c wavelength = v/f. I'm just confused on this one. my first answer was it stays the same but them I changed it but I don't fully understand why

Answer 4

The speed of waves in the rope depends upon the mass per unit length of the rope and the tension in the rope. That is probably not something they have taught you at this point. The mass per length is constant and the tension probably is also, but that depends upon how the experiment is done. It's not a very good question.

It the tension applied to the rope is constant, then the wave speed is constant.