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Enormous ‘rogue waves’ can appear out of nowhere

nationalgeographic.com

41–50 of 90 posts

Re: Enormous ‘rogue waves’ can appear out of nowhere

#41
post #17

The worst part of trying to read articles being published by very legitimate orgs like National Geographic are the mobile website decisions they allow their product teams to make. In this case, just as I'm getting into the first few paragraphs of the paper some popup or override kicks in. Usually asking for a signup. I think it's time to stop this destructive practice of attention grabbing instead of READING THE ARTI…

it's the process of trying to get paid for content, not attention grabbing

Re: Enormous ‘rogue waves’ can appear out of nowhere

#42
Surfers are very familiar with how two waves that come in different angles combine into a very high wave at the intersection. I really don't understand why monster waves seem so mysterious to scientists. I'm certain they happen all the time but no one is there to observe them except for the occasional unlucky sailor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wedge_(surfing)

Re: Enormous ‘rogue waves’ can appear out of nowhere

#44

Surfers are very familiar with how two waves that come in different angles combine into a very high wave at the intersection. I really don't understand why monster waves seem so mysterious to scientists. I'm certain they happen all the time but no one is there to observe them except for the occasional unlucky sailor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wedge_(surfing)

Well from my understanding the core problem is the statistical models used to calculate their probability were completely wrong.

So we had “hard” math “proving” they were once-in-a-million-years unlikely, and that lasted until we had overwhelming observational evidence to the contrary (in this case buoy data)

Re: Enormous ‘rogue waves’ can appear out of nowhere

#45

Surfers are very familiar with how two waves that come in different angles combine into a very high wave at the intersection. I really don't understand why monster waves seem so mysterious to scientists. I'm certain they happen all the time but no one is there to observe them except for the occasional unlucky sailor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wedge_(surfing)

> I really don't understand why monster waves seem so mysterious to scientists.

Because the explanation isn’t complete. A surfer seeing something 10 seconds beforehand and reacting to it has nothing to do with why it was occurring at all.

Re: Enormous ‘rogue waves’ can appear out of nowhere

#46
post #26

If you've ever double bounced someone on a trampoline it's the same effect. Constructive interference is awesome.

if a physics/acoustics class the professor set up a pair of speakers 30ft apart each playing a simple sine wave. The students then marched in front of the speakers, probably 50ft away, and as you walked you could clearly hear where the constructive and destructive interference was happening.

Re: Enormous ‘rogue waves’ can appear out of nowhere

#47

This article is hard to read, like most media outlets these days. Why do they run so many scripts, that call other scripts, that call other scripts...? Here's the nutshell anyway, via Firefox + NoScript + Ublock Origin and selectively blocking certain elements: > "Scientists have since figured out that unlike tsunamis, which are large waves produced by a sudden displacement of water from an event such as an earthquak…

> Why do they run so many scripts, that call other scripts, that call other scripts...?

To answer your question with a question, how much money did you take out of your pocket and give to National Geographic in exchange for reading the article?

Re: Enormous ‘rogue waves’ can appear out of nowhere

#48

This article is hard to read, like most media outlets these days. Why do they run so many scripts, that call other scripts, that call other scripts...? Here's the nutshell anyway, via Firefox + NoScript + Ublock Origin and selectively blocking certain elements: > "Scientists have since figured out that unlike tsunamis, which are large waves produced by a sudden displacement of water from an event such as an earthquak…

> Why do they run so many scripts, that call other scripts, that call other scripts...? To answer your question with a question, how much money did you take out of your pocket and give to National Geographic in exchange for reading the article?

Well since their website is unusable (never mind the fact that a nature magazine has turned to culture war) I won’t be giving them anything.

Re: Enormous ‘rogue waves’ can appear out of nowhere

#49

Surfers are very familiar with how two waves that come in different angles combine into a very high wave at the intersection. I really don't understand why monster waves seem so mysterious to scientists. I'm certain they happen all the time but no one is there to observe them except for the occasional unlucky sailor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wedge_(surfing)

Because what you're describing isn't a "rogue wave," it's just a slightly bigger wave. I'm not a surfer and am just a person who's been swimming in the sea a handful of times and I've seen this phenomenom. The rogue waves being described are incredibly rare to the point that sailors who have sailed 5000 hours have never encountered one and are sometimes talked about as though they are mythical.

When rogue waves were originally discussed the heights discussed were considered to be such that they were a 1 in 10'000 year probability, and there wasn't anyone living who could provide first hand evidence, just records of ships going missing and "rumors" amongst sailors.

Re: Enormous ‘rogue waves’ can appear out of nowhere

#50

This article is hard to read, like most media outlets these days. Why do they run so many scripts, that call other scripts, that call other scripts...? Here's the nutshell anyway, via Firefox + NoScript + Ublock Origin and selectively blocking certain elements: > "Scientists have since figured out that unlike tsunamis, which are large waves produced by a sudden displacement of water from an event such as an earthquak…

Mostly relevant if if you have small children playing at the beach in an area known for Riptide. Sneaker waves are a big issue if you're doing things like fishing from a Breakwater like tide pooling and don't know how to swim.

I think consideration of the environment you're putting yourself into is vastly more important than constant vigilance

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