Free Surface - Waves

Waves

Further information: Ocean surface wave and Airy wave theory

If the free surface of a liquid is disturbed, waves are produced on the surface. These waves are not elastic waves due to any elastic force; they are gravity waves caused by the force of gravity tending to bring the surface of the disturbed liquid back to its horizontal level. Momentum causes the wave to overshoot, thus oscillating and spreading the disturbance to the neighboring portions of the surface. The velocity of the surface waves varies as the square root of the wavelength if the liquid is deep; therefore long waves on the sea go faster than short ones. Very minute waves or ripples are not due to gravity but to capillary action, and have properties different from those of the longer ocean surface waves, because the surface is increased in area by the ripples and the capillary forces are in this case large compared with the gravitational forces. Capillary ripples are damped both by sub-surface viscosity and by surface rheology

Read more about this topic:  Free Surface

Famous quotes containing the word waves:

    “Your eyes have pardoned our faults,
    your hands have touched us
    you have leaned forward a little
    and the waves can never thrust us back
    from the splendour of your ragged coast.”
    —Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)

    “With these I would be.
    And with water: the waves coming forward, without cessation,
    The waves, altered by sand-bars, beds of kelp, miscellaneous
    driftwood,
    Topped by cross-winds, tugged at by sinuous undercurrents
    The tide rustling in, sliding between the ridges of stone,
    The tongues of water, creeping in, quietly.”
    —Theodore Roethke (1908–1963)

    “Yet
    I trust the sanity of my vessel; and
    if it sinks, it may well be in answer
    to the reasoning of the eternal voices,
    the waves which have kept me from reaching you.”
    —Frank O’Hara (1926–1966)