2
1. Safety instructions
Excessive voltages and currents can damage the
control unit and the stroboscope lamp.
•
Ensure that the operating parameters are kept
within the specified ranges.
The glass components of the ripple tank can be
broken if they are not handled properly.
•
Do not subject the ripple tank to excessive
mechanical forces.
Warning! The stroboscope becomes hot during
operation.
•
Do not touch the stroboscope lamp, and allow
it to cool before putting the stroboscope away.
•
When the ripple tank is moved, care must be
taken to ensure that the mirror inside it does
not fall out.
2. Description
The purpose of the ripple tank is to provide clear
demonstrations of basic wave phenomena in the
form of ripples on water that can easily be made
visible.
Experiment examples:
Reflection, Dispersion, Refraction, Interference,
Diffraction, Doppler effect
The ripple tank consists of flat basin (13) set in an
aluminium frame (12). In the glass floor, there is an
opening (20) with a drainage hose (21) and a hose
clip (23) to let out the water. For levelling purposes,
the ripple tank is equipped with a spirit level (9)
and two height-adjustable feet (11). Inside the
frame, there is a removable mirror (14) inclined at
an angle that allows the waves to be projected onto
a frosted-glass pane. A halogen lamp with a strobo-
scope (17) connected in front of it illuminates the
ripple tank from above. The generation of waves in
water is carried out by transferring the oscillations
of an electromagnetic vibrator (19) to the wave
exciters (3, 4, 5) which are fixed with the help of
two knurled screws (18).
An obstacle (7) and immersion bodies (6) are pro-
vided for conducting experiments. The covering
plates (1, 2) can be used to construct grilles with
slits of varying sizes and a wall to reflect waves. A
control unit (22) is responsible for separately regu-
lating both the frequency of the stroboscope and
the frequency and amplitude of the vibrator. The
stroboscope and the vibrator frequencies can be so
that the stroboscope and vibrator operate synchro-
nously or asynchronously. Two 4-mm safety con-
nectors (29) are provided for connecting a counter
to measure the frequency of the vibrator. The con-
nection to the stroboscope is via a multi-pin con-
nector (31) and the connection to the vibrator via
4-mm safety connectors (30), both of which are
found on the rear end of the control unit.
2.1 Operating elements – control unit
24 4-mm safety connectors for connecting external power supply
25 Rotary knob for setting stroboscope frequency
26 Rotary knob for setting exciter frequency
27 Changeover switch for synchronous/asynchronous operation
28 Rotary knob for setting exciter amplitude
29 4-mm safety connectors for connecting an external frequency meter
30 4-mm safety connectors for connecting vibrator
31 Multi-pin connector for connecting stroboscope
