The Types of Water Waves 1

Abstract

DR. CORNISH has produced an attractive arid valuable book. The volume is not the less valuable in that it is primarily descriptive, and in that the author shows great caution and reserve as regards speculative explanations. This caution is indeed amply warranted. The mathematical theory of water waves, successful as it is up to a certain point, is limited in its application by the fact that it contemplates only specially simplified conditions. In particular, owing to the restriction to small amplitudes, it can at present offer little in the way of explanation of various important natural phenomena, where what is technically called “turbulent” motion comes into play. Laboratory experiments, on the other hand, require elaborate and costly arrangements, which are only provided with difficulty even when a definite practical problem is in view; and in some respects the mere question of scale would impair their relevancy. There remain only observations in the open, such as the author has recorded in the present book. The extreme difficulty of these, from a quantitative point of view, is well illustrated by his discussion of storm-waves at sea.