THE THEORY OF THE REFRACTION OF A SHORT CRESTED GAUSSIAN SEA SURFACE WITH APPLICATION TO THE NORTHERN NEW JERSEY COAST

Abstract

The Thorndike Barnhart Dictionary (1951) defines a wave as a "moving ridge or swell of water." Almost everyone will agree to this definition. Milne-Thompson (1938) in Theoretical Hydrodynamics begins Chapter Fourteen on waves with the two paragraphs quoted in full below: "14.10 Wave motion. A wave motion of a liquid acted upon by gravity and having a free surface is a motion in which the elevation of the free surface above some chosen fixed horizontal plane varies with time. Taking the axis of x to be horizontal and the axis of z to be vertically upwards, a motion in which the vertical section of the free surface at time t is of the form z = a sin(mx - nt) (1), where a, m, n are constants, is called a simple harmonic progressive wave."