EK Physics #653 (Simple frequency/period)

[Synapsis]

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653. If ten ocean waves wash into shore each minute, what is the period of each wave?

A. 1/6s
B. 6s
C. 10s
D. 60s

Answer (highlight): B

This is really just a simple question - maybe I just got the wording mixed up. I read it and say well, ten waves every 60 seconds means one wave every 6 seconds. So the frequency of each wave, as the question asked, would be 6 s^-1. Since period is equal to the inverse of the frequency, the period would equal 1/6 seconds. Where's my mistake?

I think when they say "what is the period of each wave", they may be saying that the ten waves together act as one wavelength for a single wave.

 

[enervate]

Hey bud, you're on track but you short-circuited. Like you wrote, one wave every six seconds. That would be frequency = 1 wave / 6 seconds = 1/6 Hz. Since frequency has units of s^-1, you could alternatively think of that as one sixth of a wave per second = 1/6 wave / 1 second. If you're going to invert frequency to get period, that would just be 6 seconds / 1 wave.

 

[Synapsis]

Hey bud, you're on track but you short-circuited. Like you wrote, one wave every six seconds. That would be frequency = 1 wave / 6 seconds = 1/6 Hz. Since frequency has units of s^-1, you could alternatively think of that as one sixth of a wave per second = 1/6 wave / 1 second. If you're going to invert frequency to get period, that would just be 6 seconds / 1 wave.

I wonder how I screwed that up lol. Thanks!