PIRA 3B30.10 Ripple Tank

• Faculty can make adjustments to the demo by following the setups for different concepts shown below.

     Circular Waves          Straight Waves       Interfering Circular Waves

• Lay the appropriate immersion bodies in the tank to set up a reflecting barrier or single and double slits, whichever concept you would like to demonstrate.

• It's recommended to turn the frequency down to 15 Hz first, then adjust as needed. Turn the amplitude up to more clearly see the waveform.

• Place the ripple tank on a horizontal surface, making sure it is stable and not subject to any shocks.

• Place the drainage outlet hose back into its white clamp on the tank so that it is oriented vertically upwards, as shown below.

• Attach the magnetic base of the stroboscope LED to the side of the tank and face the light down towards the transparent slide of the ripple tank.

• Setup the straight waves demonstration (refer to setup pictures below). Place the other end of the metal rod through the module holder attached to the tank and secure it.

• Place the glass connector tube on the other side of the metal rod and attach the other end of the hose from the control unit to the glass connector tube, as shown below.

• Fill the top of the tank with water until the water level reaches halfway up the sides of the top of the tank, shown below.

• Connect the stroboscope to the control unit using the three-pole cable and plug the control unit into the mains using the plug-in power supply.

• To put away demonstration, clamp the drainage outlet hose from the side of the tank to empty the tank into an empty beaker after the experiment is done.

• Thoroughly dry all components of the apparatus to prevent forming of lime scale deposits.

Pictures show demonstration used at the University of Texas at Austin

• Demonstrates wave propagation and interference, and how wavelength and frequency affect the properties of the wave pattern.

• Reflection and refraction is also shown as waves bounce off barriers and change direction when passing through different mediums within the tank.

• Diffraction is shown by waves bending around obstacles.

• Huygens' principle is also demonstrated, where each point of a wavefront acts as a new source of waves.