Abstract
SEA WAVES are as unruly as ever ; but their characteristics are becoming more predictable as knowledge accumulates. The pioneer work of Arago and Stevenson Was energetically extended by the American army engineer Gaillard, whose book on "Wave Action" published in 1904 has recently been reprinted. The aim of theory has always been to extract from the reality simpler ideas that are comprehensible ; that real sea waves are complicated is sufficiently evident from the stereophotographs and contour diagrams prepared in 1939 by Schumacher. The first mathematical guess at the nature of a sea wave was made by Gerstner in 1802, and the later theories, most notably those of Stokes and Rayleigh, have provided a sound basis for the Work of the physicist and engineer.
Wind Waves at Sea, Breakers and Surf
By Henry B. Bigelow W. T. Edmondson. (United States Navy Department: Hydrographic Office: H.O. Pub. No. 602.) Pp. xii + 177 + 24 plates. (Washington, D.C.: Hydrographic Office and Government Printing Office, 1947.) 2.80 dollars.
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BARBER, N. Wind Waves at Sea, Breakers and Surf. Nature 162, 389 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/162389a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/162389a0