Answer to Question #164301 in Physics for Anna

Question

Two brothers are playing soccer on the beach,Todd kicked the ball 50 meters in the water. Todd says Waves carry objects as they travel through water. If we wait, the waves will move the ball back onto the beach. But Brian says waves don't carry thing as they travel through water. I think we need to swim out and get the ball. Who do you agree with? Explain why you agree using ideas about waves.

Answer 1

Agree with Brian

Though waves do cause the surface water to move, the idea that waves are travelling bodies of water is misleading.

Waves are actually energy passing through the water, causing it to move in a circular motion. When a wave encounters a surface object, the object appears to lurch forward and upward with the wave, but then falls down and back in an orbital rotation as the wave continues by, ending up in the same position as before the wave came by. If one imagines wave water itself following this same pattern, it is easier to understand ocean waves as simply the outward manifestation of kinetic energy propagating through seawater. In reality, the water in waves doesn’t travel much at all. The only thing waves do transmit across the sea is energy.