The wave speed is how fast a wave's pattern travels through a medium, given by v = f·λ. Drag the sliders below to set the frequency, wavelength and amplitude, and watch the wave redraw while the computed wave speed updates in real time.
Have you ever watched a ripple race across a pond while a floating leaf just bobs in place, going nowhere? That gap is the whole idea behind a wave: the disturbance travels, but the medium does not travel with it. For the transverse wave drawn here — a wobble running along a rope — each bit of rope moves perpendicular to the wave's direction, up and down, never sliding along with it. The wave speed you see is the speed of the shape, not the speed of any particle.
That speed comes straight from v = f·λ: multiply the frequency (how many humps pass each second) by the wavelength (the length of one full hump) and you get how fast the pattern advances. This simulator lets you set both numbers independently, then draws the result and reports the speed it computes. As real-world context, note that a fixed medium usually works the other way round: the medium sets v, so frequency and wavelength lock into a trade-off, one rising as the other falls. Here, you steer the equation directly.
Try the three sliders. Push Frequency up and the humps sweep past faster, though their spacing — set separately by the Wavelength slider — stays put; and because the sim recomputes v = f·λ, dragging Wavelength changes the reported speed too, rather than holding it fixed. Amplitude is the odd one out — it only makes the wave taller or flatter, altering height, not speed, since amplitude never appears in the formula. To check the arithmetic, reach for the wave speed calculator, or explore more in the interactive labs library.
Wave speed is v = f·λ: the frequency (how many waves pass each second) multiplied by the wavelength (the length of one full wave). This simulator lets you set frequency and wavelength independently and reports the speed the equation gives.
No. Amplitude sets how tall the wave is, not how fast it travels — it never appears in v = f·λ. Raising the amplitude slider makes the wave steeper on screen but leaves the reported speed unchanged.
No. In a transverse wave each bit of the medium just oscillates up and down, perpendicular to the wave's direction, and never travels along with it. The wave speed is the speed of the moving pattern, not of any individual particle.
Usually not. In a fixed medium the medium itself sets the speed, so frequency and wavelength trade off — raise one and the other falls, leaving v the same. Sound in air travels near 343 m/s whether the note is high or low; the high note just has a shorter wavelength.