Ripple tank experiments

fuckyeahphysica:

Ripple tanks are really cool ways to explore the way a wave behaves under the influence of a perturbation.

They are fairly simple to make, and are usually available in college and school laboratories to render better understanding of the wave phenomenon.

How does it work ?

Source

There is a usually an oscillating paddle( above– used to produce plane waves) or a point source/s ( below – used to produce circular waves ) which are actuated by eccentric motors, solenoids, etc + a shallow tank of water.

And that’s about it! One is ready to visualize wave phenomenon

Here are some of my favorite renditions of physical phenomenon on a ripple tank. Check sources for more. Enjoy!

1. Diffraction

2.Double slit experiment

3. Reflection

4. Refraction

5. Parabolic Reflectors

A gif is worth a thousand pages. 😀

* Since the maximum gif size that one can upload on Tumblr is 2 Mb, the images had to be resized. The unedited album of gifs has been uploaded to Imgur (click here) if you are interested 😀

** Source videos : Educational Services Inc-1964 and Aerodynamic generation of sound