Wednesday, 26 April 2017

classical mechanics - Are water waves (i.e. on the surface of the ocean) longitudinal or transverse?


I'm convinced that water waves for example:


Water wave jpg


are a combination of longitudinal and transverse. Any references or proofs of this or otherwise?



Answer



Anim


Each point is moving according to:

$x(t) = x_0 + a e^{-y_0/l} \cos(k x_0+\omega t)$
$y(t) = y_0 + a e^{-y_0/l} \sin(k x_0+\omega t)$


With $x_0,y_0$ -- "motion centre" for each particle, $a$ -- the amplitude, $l$ -- decay length with depth.


So you have exact "circular" superposition of longitudinal and transverse waves.


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