Unique Waves

Ramón Peluyera

Physics has revolutionized the world in unimaginable ways granting us the gift of knowledge throughout the ages. One of all the amazing and fascinating subjects of Physics that interest me the most is that of waves. Humanity uses it on a daily basis whether we are aware of it or not. Communications of all types are under the same category since waves are necessary for us to understand one another. Most waves have been discovered and studied by physicist and they are aware of their characteristics.  However recently, there has been news of a wave that does not travel uniformly, never seen before. This wave forms includes star shaped waves and even polygons shaped waves.

To understand how important this new discovery is one must first understand the work of a wave. Basically a wave is a flow that travels through a medium, a transportation method for example: air, water, etc. It transports energy like we have already studied in class, kinetic energy, with the exception of not transporting matter. The particles of the medium which are used to travel are moved from their original position, but then returns through equilibrium. 

Ordinarily the waves studied have been one’s who’s way of movement are linear or not uniformly linear, but this special case is rare to both cases. In the University of Nice Sophia in Nice, France Jean Rajchenbach and other colleagues were the discoverers of this new phenomenon. This new wave was made in an experiment by shaking with vibration causing frequencies that would jiggle a dish of silicone oil with a slow, but regular motion. This combination of movements would produce star-shaped waves with five or six sides. These are unusual patterns that are thought to spread out in non-linear motion between three or more separate waves. The mathematics theory behind this wave still not understood to the fullest extent. The star shaped wave appears in trays or disks of different sizes and shapes. Knowing this the wave shape is not affected by the container in which it is held, which is also a property of a wave’s shape.

Jean Rajchenbach and the team of his colleagues are developing completely new models describing this wave. According to Jean Rajchenbach the waves could be used as a relation with quasicrystals, which is an arrangement of atoms forming a structure with five fold symmetry. Further calculations suggest that the shapes of nonlinear forces are similar to that between gravity waves. Researchers hope for success in the experiment to lead to better perceptive on other nonlinear gravity waves like tsunamis. Some physicists assume that nonlinear effects could be responsible for rogue waves that are formed in the oceans. A great deal of work would go into another research for similarity between the star shaped wave with the rogue ocean waves, but thinking of the possibilities it would unimaginably effective for the entire world. Knowing the time or place a tsunami could occur due to the nonlinear similarity with the star shaped wave could save lots of lives as well. That is why expanding the knowledge from every new discovery is an important aspect of life and physics since knowing the basics is an essential part of physics.