Wave Angle and Sand Science Fair Projects

Waves

Waves are created by energy. They basically are just how energy is moved from one point to another.

Student Microscopes	Solar Power	Young Scientists Club Set 3	Young Scientists Club Set 9
Ages 10 to Adult	Ages 10 and up	Ages 5 - 8	Ages 9 - 12

Objectives/Goals

The objective for this project was to determine what the angle of the waves had to do with the sand going down the beach.

Methods/Materials

My first experiment was to make a model beach to see how the waves moved the sand. My hypothesis is "IF the angle of the wave is larger THEN the sand will move farther." For my second experiment I went to a real beach to test longshore drift. My hypothesis is "IF the angle of the wave is larger THEN the longshore drift will be faster."

Results

For my model beach my hypothesis was right. For my second hypothesis I couldn't control everything well enough to see if my hypothesis was right. I still think that waves with bigger angles create faster longshore drift on the beach, but I learned that when you control all of the variables it is different from when you are at the beach and you aren't controlling everything.

Conclusions/Discussion

I am interested in the beach because every winter the sand disappears. My project is about how wave angles and longshore drift move sand. I set up two experiments to test this. 3rd party contributor