Waaaater Wavessss

When you think about waves, what are the first waves that come to your mind? Well for me it's water waves from the ocean. In class we learned that wind creates the waves in the ocean. All my life I just believed waves were something that just comes and goes with the tide. But after this week, I learned so much more about waves and how complex they really are. To start off, let me address three factors that affect the size of waves: 1) Speed of the wind 2) Period of the wind 3) distance of the water the wind will blow. With these three factors in hand we can image that the biggest waves happen when the wind is blowing fast, for a large amount of time, and where there is distance to blow these waves. Some other properties we learned about when it came to waves, are the different parts of a wave. For example every wave has a crest, which is the very tops of the waves. The opposite of the crest in a wave, is the trough which is basically the lowest points of the wave. Vertical distance from trough to trough is known as the wave height (amplitude). The distance from crest to crest is known as the wavelength. Waves also have a property of time, which is the time between each wave. Waves typically travel very fast in deep water, but slowly in shallower water. The reason for this is because of the specific orbits in the wave having to do with it's energy. When the orbits start to hit the bottom and slow down the wave, this creates wave breaks. There are three types of wave breaks: 1) spilling 2) plunging 3) surging waves. Spilling wave break gently at the top of waves and spill to the front. Plunging waves happen when a wave goes from deep water to shallow water relatively quickly. Surging waves create a bulge near shorelines when they break. These type of waves rush up shore quickly and rush back just as quick. Below I inserted a video link to a video my friend and I shot at the Sandy's that display different kinds of breaks. From what I know I would assume that the waves at Sandy's are considered surging waves because of how they rush up to shore and back out quickly. But, correct me if I'm wrong. Leave a comment down below :)


http://iconosquare.com/viewer.php#/detail/702321157105352112_9800094