E=MC2 by Jeff Stewart

Author:Jeff Stewart
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Reader's Digest
Published: 2010-09-29T16:00:00+00:00

Mind the gap

We’ve already found one way to get waves off the straight and narrow, but there are others, too.

On a stormy day, with huge waves rolling in from the ocean, it’s clear that the waves make it in through the small gap in the harbor wall and spread out, gently rocking all the boats as they sit at their moorings.

One reason for this is reflection. When wave energy hits a hard wall, it has to bounce off; so the wave is reflected and travels back through itself. Throw another surfer into a calm harbor and you’ll see the ripples he makes bounce off the walls and spread out.

But if the waves are coming straight through a reasonably narrow gap in a harbor wall, you can see another wave effect: diffraction. Instead of just the portion of the wave that hits the gap continuing on inside the harbor while the rest of the water remains calm, the wave spreads out a little beyond the wall, and that spread grows the farther the wave travels from the gap. The smaller the gap, the greater the effect.

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