The distance between two adjacent crests of a wave is known as what?

The distance between two adjacent crests of a wave is known as what?

• A. Period
• B. Wavelength
• C. Frequency
• D. Amplitude

Answer: (B)

The distance between two adjacent crests is called the wavelength. This is a spatial measure that describes how long one complete cycle of the wave extends in the direction it travels. It’s different from the period, which is the time between crests passing a fixed point, and from the frequency, which counts how many crests pass that point each second. Amplitude is about how high the crest rises above rest, not how far apart crests are. The wavelength is related to the wave’s speed and frequency by lambda equals speed divided by frequency. So if a wave moves faster or if crests pass more slowly, the spacing between crests changes accordingly. For example, a wave traveling 6 meters every second with crests arriving 2 times per second has a wavelength of 6 / 2 = 3 meters. This ties together how fast the wave goes, how often it cycles, and how far apart the crest–crest repetitions are.

The distance between two adjacent crests is called the wavelength. This is a spatial measure that describes how long one complete cycle of the wave extends in the direction it travels. It’s different from the period, which is the time between crests passing a fixed point, and from the frequency, which counts how many crests pass that point each second. Amplitude is about how high the crest rises above rest, not how far apart crests are.

The wavelength is related to the wave’s speed and frequency by lambda equals speed divided by frequency. So if a wave moves faster or if crests pass more slowly, the spacing between crests changes accordingly. For example, a wave traveling 6 meters every second with crests arriving 2 times per second has a wavelength of 6 / 2 = 3 meters. This ties together how fast the wave goes, how often it cycles, and how far apart the crest–crest repetitions are.