How Objects React with Waves - Maria Turner 7B January 28, 2011

I. GUIDING QUESTION: How does an object laying on the water interact with the waves?

II.HYPOTHESIS: Speaking from experience of body surfing, most waves carry the object all the way until the end of the wave. When I was body surfing, I was able to go all the way until the shallow part when I stood up. However, if the wave is cut off, then the object will stop moving. I am guessing that the way an object laying on the water interacts with a wave depends on the weight and the shape of the object. Also, if the object has the power to move in the opposite direction with the same force as the wave, the object will stay in the same place.
III. Exploration (PLAN & DO A TEST):
(Materials)
a tub of water
an earring
an eraser
a heavy marble
a light marble
a pack of sticky notes
a Styrofoam ball
a glue stick
a scale
(Procedure)
1. Fill up the tub of water a little bit more than half-full.
2. put your first test into the water. Observe how far it travels, should it travel at all. Record how far it travels in a table. Record the wave frequency as well.
3. Weigh each object on a scale.
IV. RECORD & ANALYZE

OBJECT	WAVE FREQUENCY	DISTANCE THE OBJECT TRAVELS PER WAVE	WEIGHT OF THE OBJECT
EARRING	2 hertz	6 cm	.3 grams
HEAVY MARBLE	2 hertz	40 cm	5.3 grams
PLASTIC MARBLE	2 hertz	23 cm	1.9 grams
ERASER	2 hertz	3 cm	24.1 grams
STICKY NOTES	2 hertz	24 cm	14.2 grams
STYROFOAM BALL	2 hertz	11 cm	12.2 grams
GLUE STICK	2 hertz	4 cm	20.6 grams

I think that the way the object interacts with the water is dependant on the shape of the object and the density/weight of the object. If the object floats, it actually travels a shorter distance than if the object sinks. Also, the marbles moved a lot farther than the earring did, for example, because the marbles are round.

IV. Concept Acquisition (CONCLUSION):
The guiding question was “how do objects laying on the water interact with the waves?” My answer is that objects that float on the water get carried with every wave, while objects lying on the floor go in whatever the direction the wave is traveling, although they keep on going after the wave stops. My prediction was partly correct, but I didn’t mention what the distance of how the wave travels depends on a variety of things - the density of the object, the shape, and also partly the wave frequency.
V. Concept Application (FURTHER INQUIRY):
I think what was really hard about this lab was making sure that the waves were all equal, making sure that all of the data was correct. After a while, I managed to create a steady flow of waves with the tub of water. I think it would be really interesting try the same lab, just with a much bigger tub of water so that I could create “tsunami-like waves”.