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Physics
Moderators: kgudger, bfinio, MadelineB, Moderators
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hsattler14
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Thu Jan 16, 2014 7:27 am
- Occupation: Student:12th grade
- Project Question: I am doing the project where I cook eggs in the microwave, measure the hot spots, and then calculate the speed of light. I have found my microwaves frequency & chosen three different measurement variables to cook. I chose 12cm, 6cm, & 24 cm. I am just confused on what exactly I use to find the speed of light. Do I use the exact measurement I have in my chart? Do I double that measurement and then multiply it by the frequency?
- Project Due Date: 1-17-14
- Project Status: I am finished with my experiment and analyzing the data
Physics
I am currently finished with the Speed of Light project using egg whites and cooking them in the microwave. I used 12cm of egg white, 6cm of egg white, and 24 cm of egg white, cooked them, and measured the hot spots. I am working on the calculations to find the speed of light by taking the wavelength multiplied by the frequency. The only problem is, I don't know whether to use the value I recorded when I measured the hot spots, or take that number and multiply it by 2, and then multiply it by the frequency. The project on this website says the value I got is 1/2 the wavelength of the microwave. HELP!
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deleted-2131
- Former Expert
- Posts: 1415
- Joined: Sat Nov 08, 2003 11:27 pm
- Occupation: Planetary Scientist
- Project Question: N/A
- Project Due Date: N/A
- Project Status: Not applicable
Re: Physics
Hi hsattler14,
This sounds like a fun little project. The distance between hot spots tells you the half wavelength of the wave, so you need to multiply the distance you measured by 2:
Speed of light = distance between hot spots * 2 * frequency
You'll also want to make sure you watch your units. You'll probably want to convert your hot spot distances to meters and microwave frequency to hertz before multiplying them. If you do that, then your speed will be in the nice, friendly units of meters per second.
Let us know if we can help with anything else!
This sounds like a fun little project. The distance between hot spots tells you the half wavelength of the wave, so you need to multiply the distance you measured by 2:
Speed of light = distance between hot spots * 2 * frequency
You'll also want to make sure you watch your units. You'll probably want to convert your hot spot distances to meters and microwave frequency to hertz before multiplying them. If you do that, then your speed will be in the nice, friendly units of meters per second.
Let us know if we can help with anything else!
All the best,
Terik
Terik