What are the physics behind ocean waves?
98181
A mechanical wave exists in a medium (which on deformation is capable of producing elastic restoring forces) through which they travel and can transfer energy from one place to another without any of the particles of the medium being displaced permanently; there is no associated mass transport.
69398
In some sense, it could be made up of individual particles.  But if you break down the particles far enough, they start to take on properties of waves as well as particles.  But the question is, if they are waves, what is there to do the waving?\n\nIf we observe the particles very closely, we can determine their exact positions - but the more precisely we determine their positions, the less we know about their momentum!  We can only draw a graph to represent the probability of a given particle's momentum _if_ it happened to be at a particular position, and there does not seem to be any way to exactly predict what its position or momentum might be at any given point in time, without measuring it.\n\nSo it could be that matter does not exist at all, unless it is being measured, or observed.  Could it be that what matter is made up of is...mind?
164234
This is a complicated question to answer completely, but there are some things one knows.\n\n1. S waves will not travel through fluids since they are tranaverse waves. If there is a part of the earth (like the outer core) that S waves will not travel through, then you know it is fluid. \n\n2. Different types of materials have different speeds of P and S waves\n\n3. Waves can get trapped at boundaries and get to the destination faster (head waves)\n\n4. Waves will bounce off boundaries between two different materials, and show up in the recordings. \n\n5. There are formulae giving speeds of P and S waves in terms of the continuum mechanical properties of the material. \n\n6. The phases, frequencies, and amplitudes, phase and group velocities, travel times, etc of the waves that travel through the earth are all data that can be used to infer the earth's structure. \n\nThere is a lot of analysis that is conducted on seismic data to produce pictures of the interior. The signals are carefully processed, and then turned into pictures of the interior. \n\nOf course, there is a lot more detail in all of this, but this should give you a general idea to start.\n\n----------------\n\n\nHere is a my answer to a previous question about this that might be helpful:\n\n  \n\n\n \n\nThe types of seismic waves, and their amplitudes and speeds, that are transmitted through a material depend on the properties of the material. \n\nFor example, transverse waves will not travel through liquids, only solids. So the transverse S waves produced by a seismic event will not pass through the fluid inner core of the earth. Different layers between different types of materials in the earth produce reflections, so looking at the reflected seismic waves can tell something about the structure and the boundaries between regions in the earth. \n\nMore sophisticated methods for imaging the earth's interior can also be constructed. Seismic simulations can be produced and the models that produced these simulations compared with the observed seismic signals. Using exhaustion or more sophisticated optimization techniques, scientists can refine these models of earth structure. More advanced inverse methods can be developed to infer features of earth structure. \n\nInstead of using high frequency seismic waves, one can look at a seismic modal decomposition, and then develop terrestrial models that reproduce the frequencies, amplitudes and phases of the observed free oscillations using inverse methods.\n\nThe actual details can be quite complicated, and many aspects remain open problems.\n\n-----------\n\nI have attached a link to the previous question and answers that are similar.
140821
There is a lot of physics in sailing. The most important principle is Bernoulli's Principle, and it is the main reason that a sailboat moves. When the wind blows on a sail, it produces turbulent motion in the lee area of the sail, and lower pressures, which pull the sailboat forward. \n\n\nThere is also drag of the water and the air to consider, and buoyancy forces and their balance, wave propagation, and many other details. The following web site will get you started.
602076
The winds cause waves on the surface of the ocean (and on lakes). The wind transfers some of its energy to the water, through friction between the air molecules and the water molecules. Stronger winds (like storm surges) cause larger waves. You can make your own miniature waves by blowing across the surface of a pan of water. \nWaves of water do not move horizontally, they only move up and down (a wave does not represent a flow of water). You can see a demonstration of this by watching a floating buoy bob up and down with a wave; it does not, however, move horizontally with the wave. \n\nTsunamis (sometimes called tidal waves) are different from surface waves; they are usually caused by underwater earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, or landslides.\n\n\nI hope this helps....\n\nDon
229763
feel free to correct me if i am wrong.... but i think that it is a matter of perspective.  we are on the beach so it appears that the waves are always coming to the beach.  i think waves have no general direction and are colliding with each other in the ocean all the time.
804217
the ocean is like the wind it has layers of different kinds of salinity of water and tempratures.it has currents going one way and the deeper you go they go an other way some are slow while others can move at highway speeds.it is what keeps the oceans stired up .hot water on the top while you have very cold dense water on the bottom,the heat of the earth is the engine of life
14381
Oceanic tides are caused by the gravitational attraction of the moon which raises up the ocean water beneath the moon causing a high tide.  On the opposite side of the earth there is another high tide bulge caused in part by the spin of the earth.  On the coast we observe two high and two low tides each day.  As the earth spins the tidal bulge approaches a coast.  The shape of the coast affects the height of the tide.  At the Bay of Fundy in eastern Canada, the tide can equal about 45 feet at times because the tide is pulled into a converging channel that amplifies the tide.  On other coasts, for example Caribbean islands, there is very little tide.  Because the gravitational force of the sun also produces a lesser tide than the moon, the sun and moon work together or against each other in a complex way to vary the height of tides as the earth rotates about the sun in a less than perfect circle and the moon rotates about the earth and the earth spins on its axis.  The angle of the earth's axis relative to the sun changes with the seasons also affecting heights of tides below the sun. \n\nTherefore at selected coastal stations, the tides are measured over long periods ot time in special hollow tubes  with measuring scales (that are not affected by waves) and statistics are collected to predict future tides relative to the positions of the sun and moon.  These data can be extrapolated or interpolated to prepare tide tables for nearby coastal areas that do not have their own measuring tubes.
761098
water waves bounce back (reflected) when they travel in a medium and they meet an obstacle... if the obstacle has two opeings, they pass trough the openings but are bent (diffraction)... if your liquid is composed of two things like oil and water maybe, the speed of your waves will change (refraction) because waves are already passing through two diffferent mediums... the speed chanegs when waves pass through the inerface....
869831
P wave is the primary wave. Generated from the point called focus. The speed of this wave is from 13 to 17 kilo meters per second. Moves the particles in its direction of propagation. you can assume that this is non destructive wave. The secondary waves comes from the point of focus. The speed is nearly half of the primary wave. This moves the particles perpendicular to the direction of its propagation. Destructive.Do not pass through liquid. These waves are called body waves. generated from earthquakes. The L wave and R waves are most dangerous waves coming from the surface of the earth. These waves are coming because of reflection and refraction.These are called surface waves. The speed is slower than other two waves.
329954
Generally it is the action of wind on the surface of the water. wave in a small lake are proportionally smaller the waves in a large lake or bay. Waves in the ocean have a lot longer for the effect to gain momentum.
781882
P-Wave: These are called 'P' for Primary Wave. They are the ones that travel fastest and thereby are usually "felt" first. They are basically sound waves that travel thru the earth from the epicenter of an earthquake. Physics types know this as a longitudinal wave. It "shakes" things in the same direction it travels. For example, if a P-Wave is traveling West to East, all the things in the way, like people and buildings, will oscillate or move back and forth in the West-East direction. Similar to a long straight line of bumber cars! The one in the rear hits the first one and it hits the one in front of it and so on and so on. After each collision, the car bounces back to its original position only to be hit and bumped forward again. Some properties? \nFAST! They can travel up to 20 times the speed of sound in air! \nUsually noticed like, "I heard the earthquake coming!" This is because it IS, indeed, a sound wave. Most often it isn't noticed tho. \nVery little, if any, damage. \nS-Wave: These Secondary Waves are much slower and much more destructive than P-Waves. They are transverse waves. This means they make the earth vibrate perpendicularly to the direction of the wave travel. Not getting it? Think of a rope loosely held by two people. One person starts moving his/her/its hand up and down rapidly. Notice the "wave" in the rope goes from person 'A' to person 'B' while the rope itself simply vibrates up and down - perpendicular to the direction between the two people. This wave causes damage due to its configuration. It causes buildings to be thrust upward from the ground then the ground drops out from under it as the wave travels by. \nRayleigh Wave: This is a combination P and S-Wave. It's analogous to an ocean wave. It's both longitudinal AND transverse. It's hard to envision, but look at the diagram below. The surface, while being told to vibrate forward and backward in the direction of the wave is also told to vibrate up and down perpendicular to the direction of the wave. Got it? The result is the surface moving in a vertical circular path - back and forth AND up and down. The Rayleigh wave is particularly damaging because it tells structures to move in two directions at once. \nLove Wave: Not a scary sounding wave, right? Damaging, yes! This one is sorta a Rayleigh Wave on its side. It tells the surface to move forward and backward AND left and right at the same time, sorta like a surface circle. Also, very damaging.
756902
for starters\n\n0) Digging/going down mines, though that doesn't get very far!!!\n\n1) Seismic waves from earthquakes - they spread through the Earth and are picked up by seismographs all over the world - there are 2 types that travel through, p-waves and s-waves, but the 2 types are not picked up all over; s-waves don't travel through liquids.\n\n2) Lab investigations of the materials that are likely to be within the earth, under appropriately high temperatures and pressures\n\nPutting the results of these together has built up a model of a thin crust, mantle, liquid outer core and solid inner core.\n\nYou may want to search for terms like:\nseismology, body wave, shadow zone, p-wave (promary wave), s-wave (secondary wave)
1094972
Here's a link that talks about basic characteristics of tsunamis.  It was easy enough to search.  Thanks for the 2 points.\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsunami#Characteristics
104409
This is a classic problem from hydrodynamics textbooks. The short answer is, it is approximately simple harmonic motion. You can compute the restoring force caused by the displacement of the liquid if you depress a floating boat (Archimedes principle) and that then, balanced with the weight of the boat, creates the conditions for simple harmonic motion. You can approximate the period and amplitude of motion etc. \n\nHowever it gets more complicated than this of course:\n\na. There are damping forces caused by the motion of the boat through the water and the air\n\nb. The water is not completely incompressible, and the density of the water varies some with depth (a tiny effect)\n\nc. There are surface tension effects and entrainment effects\n\nd. The motion of the boat will be more complicated than simple linear motion in one dimension\n\ne. There will probably be deformation effects on the boat, changing its shape\n\nf. gravity is not constant as the boat is moving up and down a small distance in a gravity gradient\n\nand so on. \n\nHowever, the REASON that sines and cosines are so prevalent everywhere in physics is because simple harmonic motion is such a good approximation for so many things. \n\nWhy is this?\n\nWell consider Newton's Second law: F=ma, where F is force, m is mass and a is acceleration. Newton's second law is not always true, in the quantum world and in relativistic situations, but it is true under many conditions, so it is a good place to start. \n\nIn general, the force F will be some sort of nonlinear function of position x:\n\nF=F(x)\n\nHowever, if x is small, then we can approximate F(x) by a McLaurin series:\n\nF ~ F(0) + x F'(0) + h.o.t. \n\n(h.o.t. is a common acronym for higher order terms).\n\nThis then produces the equation for simple harmonic motion, when substituted into Newton's 2nd law:\n\nF(0) + xF'(0) = m d/dt(d/dt(x))\n\nMany other equations in physics like Schrodinger's equation, or wave equations with forcing, or the heat equation, or the inhomogeneous Laplace's equation include 2nd order derivatives, and can similarly be put in some form where simple harmonic motion is the result. So as strange as it seems when you are just learning about SHM in physics, it really is everywhere in all kinds of unexpected places! \n\n\nOne of my favorites is the waves of heat and cold that are travelling down into the earth from the seasonal forcing produced at the surface. Drilling down, one can observe these waves of hot and cold (with some diffusion) going back many years.
122865
The gravitational pull of the earth pulls the waves up and down while the earth is rotating.
1061601
tides dont create waves storms and wind does. a strong wind over a long period creates waves and storms churning in the ocean for a period create swells. some spots break better on a low tide or a high tide depending on the bottom and swell direction. the huge waves that hit california last week were generated from a big storm way out in the ocean.  if your interested in knowing when is the best time to go boogie boarding go to surfline . this site has surf forcasts, storm watches, and live cams of most spots all around the world. you can log on and check out the surf from home and save yourself a trip to a lousy day at the beach. or... if your like me, keep an eye open on surfline and hit it when its on. know before you go...