Question

Ocean waves observed to travel along the water surface during a developing storm. A coast guard weather station observes that there is a vertical distance from high point to low point of 4.6 meters and a horizontal distance of 8.6 meters between adjacent crests. The waves splash into the station once every 6.2 seconds. What two factors determine the speed of the wave

Answer 1

The horizontal distance represents wavelength λ. The time represents the period of the wave T.

Wave speed is given by v= λ/T

Hence, those are the only parameters needed.

Note: the vertical distance is for calculating amplitude which is not used in calculating wave speed.