ENGR-250 Ripple Tank Labs: Guidelines & Reporting Form

(revision 4 Feb 2011)

Student Name (printed):__________________ Signature:__________________ Student Name (printed):__________________ Signature:___________________ Student Name (printed):__________________ Signature:___________________ First, download and review the manual provided by the ripple tanks manufacturer, Pasco. The first ten pages of that manual provide general information on the equipment and its setup. The remaining pages suggest experiments for the ripple tank. Copies of this manufacturers manual will be in the lab so you need not print it out. But you DO need to print out and bring your own copy of THIS Guidelines & Reporting Form. From that manual, and our experience, we suggest this set up procedure: Step 1) Configure the system as shown on the first page of the manual: The rectangular LED light source bar is placed high on the rod which is screwed into the tank. Its LED hole should be over the approximate center of the tank, pointing downward. The ripple generator (the electronics box) is on the separate rod / base. The generator should overhang the tank (but not quite touch it). It should be perpendicular to the tank with its center point at about the center of the tanks edge. The LED light source should be plugged into the ripple generator, and the ripple generator plugged into an AC power source. Step 2) Carefully level the tank using the spirit level weve added to the kit by adjusting the screw-in feet at the bases of the tanks three legs. Step 3) Find the drain that hangs down from one corner of the tank, and figure out how to open and close it. Then close it. Step 4) Fill the tank with the recommended ~ 800 ml of water Step 5) To help water wet the foam bumpers, wipe them with a few drops of surfactant Step 5) Place the now empty measuring cup under the tank drain, so that you can later adjust the water level in the tank

Learn how to generate high quality plane (straight) waves: Step 1) Attach the long Plane Dipper bar to the wave generator (item 1, page 7 of the manual). Its two rods snap into receptacles on the generator unit. Step 2) Adjust the generator so the plane dipper bar is parallel to the tanks edge, and about 5 cm (2) out from the foam bumper (use the ruler to even up the separation of the bar from the tanks edge). Step 3) Using the two red knobs on the generator box, lower the bar so that it just touches the water along its whole length. Most likely this will require adjusting the tilt of the generator using the tilt red knob (the one in the corner of the generator box) see the manual page 8. Repeatedly use the lift red knob, lifting then lowering the bar out of the water until you are sure that it is contacting the water all along its whole edge simultaneously. Leave the bar so that it is pulling UP a meniscus of water along its length. Step 4) Set the phase switch so that the bar is lifted up and down parallel to the water (rather than rocking back and forth). This SHOULD be the switchs up position but it is reversed on at least one of our units (youll be able to check this in the next step). Step 5) Turn on the wave generator electronics. Use the wave frequency and amplitude knobs to learn how to make waves that give simple clear images on the wave tank screen (try this with and without using the strobe). As you turn up the amplitude, youll find that the wave image initially improves. But if the amplitude gets TOO high, the image will deteriorate (becoming more complicated and irregular as secondary harmonic waves are produced). Further, youll find that at low frequencies (below ~ 6 Hz) youll need higher amplitudes than will be optimum at higher frequencies. When you think youve mastered basic wave generation, have the TA certify this by signing here: TAs signature: ________________________

Our Experiment #1) Diffraction (Classs lecture 2 / Manual page 19) Follow the general instructions for the experiment as called out beginning on page 19 of the manual. Place the barriers (the straight plastic pieces with metal rod handles) parallel to the plane dipper bar. These barriers should be about half a tank width away from the dipper bar. This will allow you to see the waves before and after they pass through the barriers. Demonstrate the onset of diffraction when the wavelength of the wave exceeds the size of the gap. Do this either: With fixed barriers, changing the wavelength of the wave With fixed wavelength, varying the gap by moving the barriers Try both techniques. Diffraction means that it is impossible to focus or constrain a wave into a beam narrower than its wavelength (via lenses or shadow masks). In fact, as you should have seen, if you try this, the beam instead expands rapidly as a circular wave. This is the reason microfabrication technologies, which are based on light micro photography, cannot produce nanoscale objects. This failing drives nanosciences search for alternative self-assembly techniques. When you think you can clearly demonstrate the onset of diffraction, have the TA certify by signing here: TAs signature: ________________________

Our Experiment #2) Scattering (Classs lecture 2 / not in manual) Remove the barriers from experiment #1. In their position, instead stand up their ends the three small white tubes (sections of ! plastic pipe) in a widely space row. Youll see waves bouncing off the cylinders. But the important question is how MUCH of the incoming waves energy is being redirected (scattered). To estimate this, look behind the cylinders. Are there wave shadows behind the cylinders (i.e. regions of almost still wave-free water)? These cylinders are hard and thus absorb very little wave energy. So if wave energy is missing behind the cylinders (i.e. there are shadows) that energy must be going elsewhere, which is to say it IS being scattered. Set up incoming waves of varied wavelength. At a wavelength that does not leave shadows, try instead putting in one of the big rings (the ones split in two halves). Does this larger tube leave a shadow? How does scattering change (i.e. how does the degree of shadowing change)? From this you should be able to figure out why sun block manufacturers are grinding their UV absorbing materials into nanoparticles to prevent them from scattering visible light (which would make them appear white). When you think you can clearly demonstrate the onset of scattering, have the TA certify by signing here: TAs signature: ________________________

Our Experiment #3) Standing Waves (Classs lecture 3 / not in manual) Remove all objects from the tank. Remove the long Plane Dipper wave generator bar and replace it with ONE of the Standard Dippers (manual page 4, item 7). Move the wave generator so that single standard dipper is as close to the center of the tank as possible (without having its ring stand touch the tank). Place one of the big rings around that dipper (the rings are cut in half so that you can place them without having to move the dipper). Get the dipper as close to the center of the ring as you can With steady light (no strobe) start at a very low frequency (e.g. 4 Hz) and then gradually increase the frequency (reducing the amplitude to get the sharpest wave at each frequency). At certain frequencies you will observe sharp strong standing waves. Write down their frequencies: _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ TAs comments / signature: ________________________ EXTRA CREDIT (likely requiring out-of-lab time): Your standing waves are waves that fit inside the rings. So there should be a direct relationship between their frequency and the size of the ring. Can you figure out this relationship? Can you test your data against this relationship? Two possibly helpful observations: a) In each cycle, a wave crest moves one wavelength. So we should have: wave velocity = (wavelength) x (frequency) ~ constant b) For the lowest frequency standing wave we see a bright dot in the center plus one bright ring. The dipper is exciting the waves at the center, and brightness must thus indicate maximum wave height (an anti-node). So the bright ring must also be an antinode. Finally, the water against the ring is dark, suggesting a node. This outer node could be caused by water tension making it difficult for water in contact with the ring to move up and down.

Putting these this all together, it suggests that the first standing wave looks like this:

Can you extrapolate from the shape of this first standing wave to predict the relationship between the frequency of ANY standing wave and the ring diameter D?

Can you plot your data to see how it fits this proposed relationship?

NOTE: Wave velocity changes with depth of the water (see Pasco manual experiment #6). So for waves of different frequency to move at the same velocity, they must be of very small amplitude (so they do not significantly change the water depth). That was clearly not the case for your lower frequency waves, where you had to turn up the amplitude to make them visible. For this reason, the data on your waves may not precisely fit the idealized relationship you predicted. But it is typical of science that idealized relationships, while not perfectly accurate, can still be extremely valuable in predicting general behavior.

From here on you get to make your own choices on additional experiments, either ones called out in the manual, or ones you think up for yourself. We are not specifying the exact number of additional experiments you need complete. Instead our strong preference is that you take your time, doing the experiments you choose (or invent) as well as you can, fully testing all of the variables and behaviors. If it then turns out that the expectation of 5 additional experiments is too many no problem! TIP ON THE MANUALS EXPERIMENT #2 REFRACTION: Refraction depends on the fact that water waves slow in shallower water (the main subject of the manuals experiment #6). To emphasize this difference, set the water level so it just barely flows over the clear yellow shapes. It helps to wipe a drop of surfactant (the soap from the squeeze bottle) over the yellow shape before you put it into the tank. ADDITONAL POSSIBLE EXPERIMENTS: Take this opportunity to check out some of the things youve been told about waves . . . but are not sure you really believed. For instance: 1) Parabolas focus incoming (plane) waves of ALL frequencies to a single point (The supposed basis of reflecting telescopes). 2) Waves moving outward from one focal point of an ellipse will refocus at the other focal point If you care to test either of these statements, Ive added a pair of bendable drafting curves to the sets. You can bend these into parabolas and ellipses using the patterns provided on the last page of this guide. To figure out where the foci should be: A parabola described by y = ax2 has its focus at the point [0, 1/(4a)] An ellipse centered on the origin, with semi-major and semi-minor axes of a and b, is described by the equation x2/a2 + y2/b2 = 1, where for a>b the foci are at x = +/sqrt(a2-b2) 3) Tsunami waves slow and build approaching shore 4) Corner reflectors always send waves back in the direction they came from

Experiment #1) Your choice of other experiment called out in the manual Your choice (title / page number in manual):________________________ TAs certification: TAs signature: _______________________ Experiment #2) Your choice of another experiment called out in the manual Your choice (title / page number in manual):________________________ TAs certification: TAs signature: ________________________ Experiment #3) Your choice of other experiment called out in the manual Your choice (title / page number in manual):________________________ TAs certification: TAs signature: ________________________ Experiment #4) Your choice of another experiment called out in the manual Your choice (title / page number in manual):________________________ TAs certification: TAs signature: ________________________

Experiment #5) An experiment of your own invention? Description:

TAs comments: