How does the amount of water affect the size of a wave?
84852
The depth of the water determines what wavelength wave can pass through it.  Deeper water passes longer waves, which can contain more energy than shorter ones.  When a wave gets into progressively shallower water it bunches up, rises, crests and finally breaks.
500590
Tsunamis are unlike wind-generated waves, which many of us may have observed on a local lake or at a coastal beach, in that they are characterized as shallow-water waves, with long periods and wave lengths. The wind-generated swell one sees at a California beach, for example, spawned by a storm out in the Pacific and rhythmically rolling in, one wave after another, might have a period of about 10 seconds and a wave length of 150 m. A tsunami, on the other hand, can have a wavelength in excess of 100 km and period on the order of one hour. \nAs a result of their long wave lengths, tsunamis behave as shallow-water waves. A wave becomes a shallow-water wave when the ratio between the water depth and its wave length gets very small. Shallow-water waves move at a speed that is equal to the square root of the product of the acceleration of gravity (9.8 m/s/s) and the water depth - let's see what this implies: In the Pacific Ocean, where the typical water depth is about 4000 m, a tsunami travels at about 200 m/s, or over 700 km/hr. Because the rate at which a wave loses its energy is inversely related to its wave length, tsunamis not only propagate at high speeds, they can also travel great, transoceanic distances with limited energy losses.
131583
i would think that the radiation from the freqs listed above should all cause excite the water molecules in the same way but to differing extents. that's a very good question; i think i'll research it.
1101763
Well....moving water has a different refractive index to still water. So if you can monitor the intensity of color using the color of the light from still water you will see a change in the color when the water is moving. It is then possible to see that movement in the water is taking place. \nThe speed of movement maybe be also indexed as a change in refractive index. \nSo, it would be possible to run some controlled experiments and determine convection of water in some form of useful units.
503427
Waves in all bodies of water are caused by the wind. (except, of course, for tsunamis which are caused by underwater seismic disturbances).  The waves in the open sea are largely underwater, and they rise up as they come to shore and the water gets shallow.
765826
It's because p waves are faster than s waves, so the difference is related to how far away the source is.  The bigger the difference, the farther away.
51192
All waves go outward from their source, they don't all go straight to the beach, that's just the only place you can see them.  Waves originate from wind and other forces causing water particles to build up and roll over and on top of one another...they are usually not very noticable until they come closer to shore and the compression between the particles is sent upward.
813594
v = wave length * f.\n\nSo, length = v / f =   1,7m
387651
Tsunamis fall into a wave physics category called long waves, also known as shallow water waves.  This type of wave is characterized by a wavelength that is much larger than the water depth.  In the case of tsunamis, their wavelength might be 500 km versus, for example, a 4 km ocean depth, so even though 4 km is "deep", the waves are technically "shallow water waves".\n\nAccording to the sources I have included below, the velocity of shallow water waves does in fact vary according to the water depth.  According to the NOAA site, "The speed of a shallow-water wave is equal to the square root of the product of the acceleration of gravity (32ft/sec/sec or 980cm/sec/sec) and the depth of the water."  Therefore, the longer the wavelength, the faster the wave.  Since tsunamis have very large wavelengths, their speed is large.\n\nThe ripples on a pond that we're all so familiar with are technically short waves, or deep water waves, because the wavelength of the waves is not substantially larger than the depth of the water.  In this situation, the wave velocity is relatively constant for the wavelengths we typically see on the surface of a pond or bathtub, but according to the sources below, the wave speed does in fact vary according to the wavelength of the waves.\n\nYou are correct that the speed of a wave is constant in a given medium.  However, as you suspected after you lost the bet, tsunamis and ripples are effectively traveling through different media because of the ratio of their wavelengths to the water depth.
264363
Good thinking, unlike some of the answers here. Anything put in or on the water displaces water and makes the water level rise. The ocean is so huge that you could not measure it unless the rock was so large you could not move it.
9692
An earthquake under a body of water often lifts or collapses the land under the water.  This sudden move of a large body of land displaces the water above it, creating a massive wave.  The wave is unlike waves you see at the beach, which are caused by wind.  This wave is very long and can travel at hundreds of miles per hour.  Once the wave reaches shallow water, the wave is compressed, lifting the water very high, causeing a tsunami, or tidal wave.
1160393
It depends on the density of the liquids... think about this... 1 liter of water weights less than 1q liter of quicksilver or one liter of maple syrup... the density changes the weght of the liquid by volume.
47570
The tide comes in and goes out due to gravity, the waves are attributed to wind, techtonic plate activity and weather cycles on the surface of the ocean.  A swell means wave action may be increasing on certain beaches depending on which way the beach faces, i.e. south facing beach.
1149367
None of the above.\n\nThe "most" true statement would be that it "transfers" its energy from its winds to the shallower water creating waves, but it's not entirely true.  Huge waves are also present in very deep water during a hurricane; it doesn't require shallow water to create large waves.\n\nOh, and contrary to some posts here, it doesn't gather most of its power from warm air, it gathers it from warm water.  That's why it never gains strength once it hits land.  Lord knows Florida's hot, and if it were the air that was the defining factor, these things wouldn't lose strength the moment they hit land.
265293
It is due to a change in the mass as the volume of water changes.
384399
Because Debrogelie's wave equation has momentum on the bottom, which is dependent on mass. Therefore, as mass increases, the wavelength decreases. This means that all things that we can see have such a low wavelength that its impossible to see, let alone measure.
862402
There's nowhere else for them to go. Like, if you splash your hand in a bath, the disturbance in the water must spread until it hits the side. If you dive into a pool, the wave will reach the side of the pool.\nAlso, the wave height gets magnified when the water becomes shallower, as it usually does near the shore of a lake or sea. So if you look over a cliff into deep water, even if it's rough the waves are not so big as they hit the base of the cliff, but if there's a beach with shallow water just around the headland the waves there will be large breakers.