Talk:Swell (ocean)

hi there, I am trying to find out if there are in fact 7 waves in a swell sequence. and if so - is it the Biggest wave?
 * Sets may contain between 3 and 15 (or more) waves per set, and wave height is often the average height of the largest 33% of the waves in each set, measured from trough to crest. Check out http://www.stormsurf.com/page2/tutorials/wavebasics.shtml for more info. DavidGC 07:21, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Insult?
There's a link to this section under 'Insult':
 * 1) Insult to economic class

* e.g. swell, redneck

I can't find any reference to an insult here - can someone explain? Amanita 13:36, 22 June 2006 (UTC) A swell is an old name for a rich young gentleman - I've heard it used in some old Broadway songs - Toff perhaps is similar.

significant error in definition of Significant Wave Height
It says "Swell size is also known as the significant wave height" <- this is not correct, SWH or Hs is for the whole spectrum of waves ranging from tides and other components at lower frequencies than swell, to the wind waves and other components.

User: Macdaddy

sources: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/key/?n=marine_sigwave; http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/wavecalc.shtml; — Preceding unsigned comment added by 139.166.244.212 (talk) 10:08, 8 March 2013 (UTC)

Wave Energy
Using some basic physics.

Velocity: A moving object has the energy E=1/2*m*v^2, therefore, a wave's energy is proportional to its period squared.

Well, this is true for a single particle of water. When one adds up the energy of all the particles in the water column, the particles near the top are more important, and the particles at larger depths are only influenced by the larger periods. The end result is that, when averaged over a wave period, the kinetic energy ends up being INDEPENDENT of the wave period, and is simply equal to the potential energy, i.e. the density rho times the gravity g times the variance of the sea surface elevation. In the case of waves with a single period this is rho*g*a^2/4 for the mean kinetic energy per unit surface.

Detailed derivation can be found in eq. 2.46 of

ftp://ftp.ifremer.fr/ifremer/cersat/products/gridded/wavewatch3/pub/COURS/waves_in_geosciences_2014.pdf Ardhuin (talk) 15:58, 21 February 2015 (UTC)

Size: Potential Energy for an object is E=m*g*h. For a wave, the mass will be proportional to its height squared. The centroid's height will be be 1/3 wave height, so the wave's total potential energy will be proportional to the height cubed.

189.188.12.156 (talk) 01:55, 22 May 2013 (UTC) baden

Why would the mass be proportional to the height?? Whether there are waves or not, the mass of the ocean is the same... Ardhuin (talk) 15:58, 21 February 2015 (UTC)

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