That may well be an illustration of how waves travel in a medium, but the medium itself just just makes little circles and overall just stays put? It's the plane of the circles that has me perplexed.
I seem to recall that the motion of the medium in non-breaking waves is perpendicular to the motion of the wave, not parallel to it. Here I see circles that look like they are parallel to motion of the wave, (wave motion expressed as a plane of parallel vectors). I guess it could be a perspective illusion, that the particles are in fact moving in an elliptical pattern and it's just viewing angle that is foreshortening the ellipses, making them appear to be circles in this two dimensional illustration.
Or there are just lots of different ways to make a wave in a medium, and in this case the force has been applied parallel to the surface of the medium. 8^/ And gravity is not a factor. In short, a compression wave?
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Date: 2014-03-26 08:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-27 12:56 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-27 01:55 am (UTC)Waves that BREAK are different. But in non-breaking waves, the water just goes around and around and doesn't move much other than up and down.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-27 02:43 am (UTC)Or there are just lots of different ways to make a wave in a medium, and in this case the force has been applied parallel to the surface of the medium. 8^/ And gravity is not a factor. In short, a compression wave?