Jack wrote; >Okay, I admit it. I don't know how to measure a wave. Is the "height" of a >wave the vertical distance from the bottom of the trough to the top of the >crest? Or is it from the mean? Or what? What's the real technical answer? Wave height is the vertical distance from the trough to the crest. Deep water waves (depth of water 25 times the wave length) break at length to height ratios of approximately 7:1. Sometimes they break at more than 10:1 because of wind and current action. Waves in shallow water get steeper and higher until they break. Most swells (as opposed to new waves) have length to height ratios of 20:1 or more. Does it matter? Possibly. The size, direction, period and steepness of waves can be useful in predicting changing weather as well as in navigating. Cheers, John Winters Redwing Designs Specialists in Human Powered Watercraft http://home.ican.net/~735769/. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Sat Aug 29 1998 - 01:24:55 PDT
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