A wave buoy records the dominant frequency of arriving swell every days
PHYSICS · Multi-part · Fermi University Physics · Oscillations, Waves & Acoustics · Waves in two and three dimensions, dispersion and wave packets · Waves in two and three dimensions, dispersion and wave packets
Modes, Packets and Media, Ch Water waves and de Broglie waves
Problem
A wave buoy records the dominant frequency of arriving swell every 1.5 days. Data (t in days, f in Hz): t=0.0, f=0.0421; t=1.5, f=0.0547; t=3.0, f=0.0674; t=4.5, f=0.0800; t=6.0, f=0.0926. The record is deep-water swell from a single distant storm.
((a)) Fit a straight line to f(t) and use its slope to find the storm's distance D from the buoy.
((b)) Use the fitted line to find how many days before t=0 the storm occurred.