How are water ripples formed, in terms of physics?
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I hope this helps.\n\nAsk A Scientist\nPhysics Archive  \n\n--------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\nRipples in Water \n\n10/29/2004 \n\n \nname         Susanne H.\nstatus       educator\nage          50s\n\nQuestion -   What is the scientific explanation of how a ripple is\nformed when something is dropped onto water?  Why not just one wave?\n-----------------------------------------------------------------------\nThe ripple effect is similar to a spring. Unless a spring is carefully\n"damped" the weight on the end of a spring will oscillate up and down. A\nsimilar thing happens when a weight is dropped into a pool of liquid. The\nweight "pushes" the liquid down, but because the liquid has been displaced\nfrom its equilibrium point it recoils back up. The exchange of potential\nand kinetic energy back and forth causes a ripple in the liquids surface\nback and forth until friction causes the waves to decrease in amplitude.\n\nVince Calder\n=====================================================\nDear Susanne,\n\nThe train of ripples is caused by the oscillation of the water at the point\nthe stone is dropped.  Initially, the stone depresses the water under it.\nThe depressed water is then lifted by the buoyancy of the water around it.\nSince the top of the depressed water is under the top surface of the rest of\nthe water, the buoyant force on it is greater than its weight and so the\nwater is rapidly accelerated upwards.  When it reaches its original level\n(lined up with the top of the rest of the water), it is moving upward and\nwill continue some distance above the rest of the water.  Eventually, of\ncourse, its unsupported weight causes it to stop and start falling down.  It\nwill again overshoot its equilibrium position and continue downward some\ndistance. This oscillation continues until the energy lost to the viscosity\nof the water finally brings it to rest in its original position.\n\nThe up and down oscillations of the water which was originally under the\nstone cause the waves to form which propagate outwards in a circular\nfashion.\n\nBest, Dick Plano...\n=====================================================\n\n\n\n--------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n  Back to Physics Ask A Scientist Index \nNEWTON Homepage Ask A Question \n\n\n\nNEWTON is an electronic community for Science, Math, and Computer Science K-12 Educators.\nArgonne National Laboratory, Division of Educational Programs, Harold Myron, Ph.D., Division Director.
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There are natural surfactants in the water from certain organisms that grow in the ocean (e.g. kelp, coral). The wave action on the water and surfactants then makes the foam.
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It's similar to the Venturi Principle, where the jet creates a vacuum effect as it punches a "hole" through the air above the water. Since nature proverbially abhors a vacuum, the surrounding air and the water beneath the hole rush to fill it.\n\nYou can create a similar effect by directing the stream from a compressed air blower between two parallel pieces of streamer material. You would think that the pieces of crepe paper would split away from one another; actually, they tend to come together.
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Waves are formed by putting directional kinetic energy into water and the surface tension of a liquid acts like a jump rope when you whip it really fast.
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When swimming in the ocean, have you ever wondered why you tend to be carried down the beach, away from your towel in an undertow? \n\nThe answer is simple. This process is called longshore drift and is generated by wave and current action. \n\nWater and sediment are transported in a zig-zag pattern as waves and currents approach the shoreline at an angle. This zig-zag pattern is the mechanism for sediment transport as the swash is immediately followed by the backwash to the ocean. This energy created from the breaking waves allows for weak currents to carry large amounts of coarse-grained sediment down the shoreline. These weak currents, known as longshore currents, carry water and sediment parallel to the shoreline toward the downdrift end of the beach
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Here's an interesting article that explains a little about how surface tension works in droplets.\n\n\n"Surface Tension in Water Droplets \nIntermolecular forces create the surface tension that causes these water droplets on leaves to bead up and form the smallest surface possible. The water molecules at the surface are pulled in by the cohesive force between themselves and molecules inside the droplet. The water keeps its droplet shape because there are no water molecules outside the surface to balance this inward pull. "\n\nhttp://encarta.msn.com/media_461560536_761563983_-1_1/Surface_Tension_in_Water_Droplets.html\n\nHere's another resource,\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface_tension
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waves form when you fart in the water
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an updraft of cold air freezes water droplets into crystle. All of them are 6 sided, and EVERY ONE of them is different - amazing eh.\n\nyou can go to http://snowflakebentley.com/snowflakes.htm for cool pics and \nhttp://www.kidzworld.com/site/p1587.htm\nto see how snow is formed.
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If you are referring to the phenomenon of water actually flowing "uphill"- it is only a myth.\n\nMany have thought themselves to observe such a thing but it is only an optical illusion. Usually the result of objects just below the surface causing a questionable rippling effect that makes the water appear to flow the "wrong" way.\n\nIt's neat to watch though.
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Good thinking, unlike some of the answers here. Anything put in or on the water displaces water and makes the water level rise. The ocean is so huge that you could not measure it unless the rock was so large you could not move it.
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You should take a look here to see the formation of the ocean basins: http://www.mos.org/oceans/planet/change.html\nand then the next page, to see one theory on where the water comes from:\nhttp://www.mos.org/oceans/planet/cycle.html\n\nPerhaps a better answer is here:\nhttp://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/oct99/941236464.Es.r.html\n\nFurther discussion on the origins of all the water is given here:\nhttp://www.oceansonline.com/ocean_form.htm\nand under the "Origin of the oceans" title here:\nhttp://www.seafriends.org.nz/oceano/oceans.htm
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It is more complicated than that.  So I'll just explain it all.  \n    What Makes Weather: "Weather" is caused by uneven heating of the earth's surface. Warm air is lighter than cold air, so it rises. Rising air would create a vacuum, but nature won't permit that, so surrounding air rushes in to fill the void that rising air is trying to create. The result is "wind". Also, its the warm air, rising air in one area, and the cold, descending air in a different area that creates differences in air pressure, i.e. barometric pressure, and at any given spot in the world this pressure is constantly changing. We humans seem a bit out of tune with barometric pressure changes, as they don't seem to affect us as much, at least outwardly. Do these pressure changes affect other land animals? Probably so. Some of this we can maybe document, but a lot of this is still open to further study. Most anglers agree that fish react considerably to changes in air pressure. Why? To understand the answer to that question, we should think of the "air" above as pushing down on a lake or river because of the air's weight. We now know that the weight of that air is constantly changing through air pressure changes. One key to why fish are so affected by air pressure changes is that when air pushes on the water there's no place for it to go, or at least there's very little water compression. Further, when air compresses down against a body of water, the pressure in the water itself is more (water pressure) than the difference than the air pressure has experienced because air will compress so much more. The "standard" for barometric pressure is 29.92 inches of mercury at sea level. This means "standard" air pressure will hold up 29.92 inches of mercury (if it's inverted just so). If air pressure increases, i.e. there's more weight on it, the pressure goes up, maybe to 29.99, 30.13, something like that. If air pressure goes down, there's less weight pressing down on it, so the numbers might read 29.85, 29.79, something like that. The thing to remember is that while you might imagine these fluctuation to be small (maybe because we can't feel them), fish like bass do feel these changes, perhaps dramatically because the air above is pressing down on the water where they live and the changes in the water pressure are much more dramatic than in the air.\n\nHow Pressure Affect Bass: Sorry for that lengthy explanation, but maybe this is the first time you've been able to better understand what barometric pressure is, as well as why fish are maybe more affected by these changes in their watery environment. One of the reasons bass are so challenging is that they seem more influenced by environmental changes like barometric pressure. These atmospheric pressure changes affect shallow water bass more than they do the deeper dwellers. It is thought that fish are able to monitor pressure changes via their swim bladder. We can assume that when barometric pressure goes up (higher), bass feel increased pressure on their swim bladder. The swim bladder might even compress. Does this make them feel lethargic, uncomfortable, less inclined to feed? Might high pressure even affect their equilibrium or sense of balance? Probably so on all counts, or at least that's what many people are theorizing at this moment. Recall how a bass reacts when it is kept out of the water longer than it normally take to release it? They turn on their side when you turn them loose. One plausible reason this might occur is that by being out of the watery environment for a while, their swim bladder expands considerably, fouling up their equilibrium. It probably takes a bass quite a long time to recover from this. Same deal with a marked air pressure change (up or down) which in turn affects the pressure in the water.\n\nHow To Check Your Local Pressure: What about the barometers you keep in your house? Are
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This is a classic problem from hydrodynamics textbooks. The short answer is, it is approximately simple harmonic motion. You can compute the restoring force caused by the displacement of the liquid if you depress a floating boat (Archimedes principle) and that then, balanced with the weight of the boat, creates the conditions for simple harmonic motion. You can approximate the period and amplitude of motion etc. \n\nHowever it gets more complicated than this of course:\n\na. There are damping forces caused by the motion of the boat through the water and the air\n\nb. The water is not completely incompressible, and the density of the water varies some with depth (a tiny effect)\n\nc. There are surface tension effects and entrainment effects\n\nd. The motion of the boat will be more complicated than simple linear motion in one dimension\n\ne. There will probably be deformation effects on the boat, changing its shape\n\nf. gravity is not constant as the boat is moving up and down a small distance in a gravity gradient\n\nand so on. \n\nHowever, the REASON that sines and cosines are so prevalent everywhere in physics is because simple harmonic motion is such a good approximation for so many things. \n\nWhy is this?\n\nWell consider Newton's Second law: F=ma, where F is force, m is mass and a is acceleration. Newton's second law is not always true, in the quantum world and in relativistic situations, but it is true under many conditions, so it is a good place to start. \n\nIn general, the force F will be some sort of nonlinear function of position x:\n\nF=F(x)\n\nHowever, if x is small, then we can approximate F(x) by a McLaurin series:\n\nF ~ F(0) + x F'(0) + h.o.t. \n\n(h.o.t. is a common acronym for higher order terms).\n\nThis then produces the equation for simple harmonic motion, when substituted into Newton's 2nd law:\n\nF(0) + xF'(0) = m d/dt(d/dt(x))\n\nMany other equations in physics like Schrodinger's equation, or wave equations with forcing, or the heat equation, or the inhomogeneous Laplace's equation include 2nd order derivatives, and can similarly be put in some form where simple harmonic motion is the result. So as strange as it seems when you are just learning about SHM in physics, it really is everywhere in all kinds of unexpected places! \n\n\nOne of my favorites is the waves of heat and cold that are travelling down into the earth from the seasonal forcing produced at the surface. Drilling down, one can observe these waves of hot and cold (with some diffusion) going back many years.
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Whe water sit stationary in a container undistured, the surface of the water will have a certain surface tension that act somehow like a piece of paper that can hold certain weight that rest on it. Dust which is basically made up of very light particles will settled on the surface and remains on it since the weight is not enough to overcome the force of the surface tension forming the water surface. However, if u try to add in surfactants such as soap into the water and compare it with just pain water alone, u will notice that the dust film develops faster on the plain water! This is so since soap or detergents acts as a surfactants that can break or reduces the surface tension force of water hence more dust particels can actually break through them and as a results less dust film form on it!!!
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Waves are formed in three ways, gravity, wind and earthquakes. Gravity is responsible for the high and low tides. High tide is when the water is the deepest and low tide is when the water is most shallow. The rise and fall of the water level causes waves to form.\n\nThe second cause of waves is wind. The wind can be light and only cause small waves. These waves can be as tiny as ripples in the water. Young children can practice making waves by blowing on a bowl full of water.\n\nWind can also cause very large waves that make being in the water very dangerous. Even large ships don't want to be caught in a storm with huge waves.\n\nThe type of wave wind causes depends on how hard the wind is blowing, how long the wind blows and how much ocean the wind blows over.\n\nLastly, waves can be caused by earthquakes. Earthquakes are the result of two of the earth's plates rubbing together. Just as we stumble or fall during an earthquake, water also reacts to the power force. The earthquake pushes the water away from the epicenter of the quake and can cause some pretty large waves.
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The convection of heat in the water carries warm water from the bottom of the water, nearest the warm earth, to the surface and back.\nThis motion maintains enough warmth throughout the water to prevent the fish from freezing.  The bodies of the fish also enables them to survive in near freezing temperatures by moving constantly.\nConvection always occurs, in Summer and Winter.  And the pattern never changes.
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The simple answer - the wind causes waves (once in a while, of \ncourse, there is an earthquake under the ocean that causes a "tidal wave", \nor tsunami, as the Japanese call them), but all those waves that crash \nendlessly on the beaches of the world, day in and day out, year after year, \nare caused by winds. When you're in boat in the ocean far from land, the \nwaves come from every direction, because they can travel for many, many \nmiles, and the wind blows in different directions in different areas and \noften changes from day to day. When the waves get to shallow water near the \nshore, there is friction between the waves and the sea bottom. The effect \nof that friction is to turn the waves so that come straighter in toward the \nshore. If you're standing on a lookout point above the shore, you can often \nsee this effect. \nNow imagine what's happening on a day when the waves are coming in \ntoward you even though the wind is blowing out toward the sea from the \nshore. The waves breaking on shore got started someplace, possibly hundreds \nof miles away, where the wind direction was more or less blowing toward the \nshore, and they have continued despite having the wind now blowing at them. \nAt the same time, there are new waves being formed by the wind you feel, \nand they will build up and head away from the shore. At some time in \nnext several days, they may be breaking on a beach on the other side of the \nocean, and cause some curious kid to wonder where they came from. Now you \ncould answer, "They started one day right off this beach."