Practical Physics: Basic Experiments with Ripple Tanks

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content provider: the Nuffield Curriculum Centre
written by the Nuffield Curriculum Centre

This resource contains a set of eight introductory experiments on wave reflections, appropriate for use in high school and middle school. Students are introduced to ripple tanks and gain confidence in using them by doing some simple experiments with pulses.

SEE RELATED ITEMS on this page for a Teachers' Guide on using ripple tanks, and for ripple tank experiments for the more advanced classroom.

This item is part of a much larger collection of physics/astronomy experiments, sponsored by the UK's Institute of Physics and funded by the Nuffield Curriculum Centre.

https://spark.iop.org/collections/basic-experiments-ripple-tanks

Subjects	Levels	Resource Types
Oscillations & Waves - Wave Motion = Reflection and Refraction (Sound) = Transverse Pulses and Waves	- High School - Middle School	- Instructional Material = Activity = Instructor Guide/Manual = Laboratory

Intended Users	Formats	Ratings
- Educators	- text/html	Currently 0.0/5 Want to rate this material? Login here!

Access Rights:: Free access
Restriction:: © 2006 The Nuffield Foundation
Additional information is available.
Keywords:: activities, experiment, hands-on, practical physics, ripple tank, strobe tank, transverse waves, wave experiments, wave reflection, waves
Record Cloner:: Metadata instance created March 20, 2009 by Caroline Hall
Record Updated:: August 16, 2020 by Lyle Barbato
Last Update when Cataloged:: October 17, 2007
Other Collections:: The Physics Front

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AAAS Benchmark Alignments (2008 Version)

4. The Physical Setting

4F. Motion

6-8: 4F/M4. Vibrations in materials set up wavelike disturbances that spread away from the source. Sound and earthquake waves are examples. These and other waves move at different speeds in different materials.
6-8: 4F/M7. Wave behavior can be described in terms of how fast the disturbance spreads, and in terms of the distance between successive peaks of the disturbance (the wavelength).
9-12: 4F/H6ab. Waves can superpose on one another, bend around corners, reflect off surfaces, be absorbed by materials they enter, and change direction when entering a new material. All these effects vary with wavelength.

11. Common Themes

11B. Models

6-8: 11B/M1. Models are often used to think about processes that happen too slowly, too quickly, or on too small a scale to observe directly. They are also used for processes that are too vast, too complex, or too dangerous to study.
9-12: 11B/H5. The behavior of a physical model cannot ever be expected to represent the full-scale phenomenon with complete accuracy, not even in the limited set of characteristics being studied. The inappropriateness of a model may be related to differences between the model and what is being modeled.

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<a href="https://www.compadre.org/portal/items/detail.cfm?ID=8715">Nuffield Curriculum Centre. Practical Physics: Basic Experiments with Ripple Tanks. October 17, 2007.</a>

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Nuffield Curriculum Centre, (2006), WWW Document, (https://spark.iop.org/collections/basic-experiments-ripple-tanks).

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Nuffield Curriculum Centre, Practical Physics: Basic Experiments with Ripple Tanks (2006), <https://spark.iop.org/collections/basic-experiments-ripple-tanks>.

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Nuffield Curriculum Centre. (2007, October 17). Practical Physics: Basic Experiments with Ripple Tanks. Retrieved April 25, 2024, from https://spark.iop.org/collections/basic-experiments-ripple-tanks

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Nuffield Curriculum Centre. Practical Physics: Basic Experiments with Ripple Tanks. October 17, 2007. https://spark.iop.org/collections/basic-experiments-ripple-tanks (accessed 25 April 2024).

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Nuffield Curriculum Centre. Practical Physics: Basic Experiments with Ripple Tanks. 2006. 17 Oct. 2007. Nuffield Curriculum Centre. 25 Apr. 2024 <https://spark.iop.org/collections/basic-experiments-ripple-tanks>.

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@misc{ Author = "Nuffield Curriculum Centre", Title = {Practical Physics: Basic Experiments with Ripple Tanks}, Volume = {2024}, Number = {25 April 2024}, Month = {October 17, 2007}, Year = {2006} }

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%Q Nuffield Curriculum Centre %T Practical Physics: Basic Experiments with Ripple Tanks %D October 17, 2007 %U https://spark.iop.org/collections/basic-experiments-ripple-tanks %O text/html

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%0 Electronic Source %A Nuffield Curriculum Centre, %D October 17, 2007 %T Practical Physics: Basic Experiments with Ripple Tanks %V 2024 %N 25 April 2024 %8 October 17, 2007 %9 text/html %U https://spark.iop.org/collections/basic-experiments-ripple-tanks

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