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Name: Kitty C
Status: student
Age: 19
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 8/2/2004
Question:
I have noticed that water sloshes back and forth in a pan only at a certain frequency. What does this frequency depend on?

Replies:
The waves in a trough of water depends upon the shape and size of the trough (called a pan if the trough is circular), the depth, the viscosity of the fluid (if it happens not to be water), as well as the frequency of the vibration if the trough is a forced oscillator (vs. a free vibration of the trough. The reason I use the term "trough" because often in the study of waves in water the shape of the vessel is often rectangular with a sloping depth.

Vince Calder


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