Why does waves break

There's several other articles that should help. This is great, but a small correction. As a wave approaches shallow water and begins to shoal, wave length not period decreases. Wave period is always conserved. I doubt that that wave period decreases I think you should be saying the wave length decreases. This is because they do indeed slow down.

Any comment. By the way great page -- made me think -ta. Longboarders Only. Surf Chat. Surfboard Advice. Surfing Lessons. Register Login. Australasia Pacific. Central America. North America. South America. Check out the full surf spot map, add your spots and contribute! Surf Gear. Surfing Vacations. The Surfboard. Board Bags. Creating Surf 69 comments. Thanks man, helped a lot with my physics homework "Why do waves break? Great homework help, which is very clear and easy to understand Thanks.

Your name:. At this point their behavior will begin to be influenced by the bottom. When the wave touches the bottom, friction causes the wave to slow down. As one wave slows down, the one behind it catches up to it, thus decreasing the wavelength. However, the wave still contains the same amount of energy, so while the wavelength decreases, the wave height increases.

Often breakers will start to curl forwards as they break. This is because the bottom of the wave begins to slow down before the top of the wave, as it is the first part to encounter the seafloor. There are three main types of breakers: spilling, plunging, and surging. These are related to the steepness of the bottom, and how quickly the wave will slow down and its energy will get dissipated. Swell can be generated anywhere in the ocean and therefore can arrive at a beach from almost any direction.

But if you have ever stood at the shore you have probably noticed that the waves usually approach the shore somewhat parallel to the coast. This is due to wave refraction. If a wave front approaches shore at an angle, the end of the wave front closest to shore will touch bottom before the rest of the wave. This will cause that shallower part of the wave to slow down first, while the rest of the wave that is still in deeper water will continue on at its regular speed.

As more and more of the wave front encounters shallower water and slows down, the wave font refracts and the waves tend to align themselves nearly parallel to the shoreline they are refracted towards the region of slower speed. Waves that travel over a long distance will be larger, faster and more powerful.

Ocean waves form by wind. The longer and stronger the wind blows, the larger the size of the wave will be. There are two types of waves; wind waves and swell waves. Wind waves are usually produced by nearby storms and travel only a short distance making the wave very weak. Swell waves are produced from storms and travel a long distance past its point of origin. The longer a wave travels uninterrupted, the larger, faster and more powerful the wave will become. Waves with a high period or time it takes for a wave to travel a certain distance will have much more power than those with a low period.

A wave will begin to break as it moves over a shallow bottom. Waves break when they reach a shallow coastline where the water is half as deep as the wave is tall.