The google wave challenge

Monday 24 February 2014

Last weekend I was at the subject specific seminar in Istanbul getting as much information as possible about the new syllabus. When discussing possible investigation topics Andreas (Tsokos) our workshop leader showed us some great google images of wave phenomena that Fabrizio Logiurato from Trento University in Italy had been collecting. They were all from Google Earth and show interference, diffraction, reflection and refraction effects in ocean waves. I decided to set about finding some of my own so started with my favorite surfing beaches/ These showed waves slowing down (wavelength getting shorted) as they approached the beach but not much more. Then I found this one in the estuary of the rivers Taw and Torridge in North Devon. The wave in the channel is traveling faster than the part of the wave close to the bank so it causes the wavefront to change direction - refract. The middle bit's a bit messy but I'm quite proud of my Google Earth discovery. What can you find? A picture like this would be a great start to an EE or investigation.