Image talk:Shallow water waves.gif

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This looks like a simulation of the linearised shallow water equations, not the full nonlinear equations - is this correct? 130.88.16.254 11:32, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

How can you tell? --82.166.251.178 23:34, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

The system of equations whose solution is supposed to be illustrated by this picture can be found in the Wikipedia article titled shallow water equations. Michael Hardy 02:08, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

I would absolutely agree with 130.88.16.254: the image looks like a simulation of the wave equation (which is the linearised limit of the shallow water equations), not the shallow water equations themselves. It could be that the (unlabeled) height scale is such that we are looking at very small height disturbances on the full shallow water equations, which appear very much like the wave equations. For displacements of significant amplitude, the shallow water equations form shocks, rather than smooth sinusoidal waves in the situation illustrated. My PhD involves developing numerical methods for the simulation of the shallow water equations, so when I get the opportunity I will generate an appropriate animation to compare with / replace this one. I'd very much appreciate the feedback of Dan Copsey / R. Koot about how this was originally simulated. Chrisjohnson (talk) 00:29, 6 February 2008 (UTC)