Wavelength:


Define:

The wavelength of a wave is the distance between two consecutive peaks. If the distance between a wave's two peaks is 10cm, then it has a wavelength of 10cm. Wavelength is denoted external image wimg53.gif. The wavelength equals the speed of the wave divided by the frequency.

Unit:

meter
angstrom

Example:

The distance between two consecutive peaks of a wave is 20cm.
What is the wave's wavelength?
Wavelength is the distance between two consecutive peaks.
The wave's wavelength is 20cm.

The speed of a wave is 10m/s and the frequency of the wave is 20hz. What is the wavelength?
wavelength = speed / frequency
0.5 = 10m/s / 20hz
The wavelength is 0.5m.

Unlike Amplitude, wavelength is.....

Wavelength is the distance between two consecutive peaks. A wave's amplitude is the distance between the resting position and peak of the wave.

sources:

http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/Wavelength.html
http://id.mind.net/~zona/mstm/physics/waves/partsOfAWave/waveParts.htm
http://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/EDDOCS/wavelength.html