A simple method for measuring the damping of the liquid surface wave (LSW) based on the diffraction method was proposed in this paper. In the experiment, the phenomenon was observed that the intensity distribution of the diffraction patterns from the LSW varies with the position of the incident spot. By theoretical analysis of the relationship between the intensity distribution and the LSW amplitude, the damping constant was obtained. In addition, the viscosity of the liquid can be calculated with this method, too.
Diffraction; Liquid surface wave; Damping constant
