Preface
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Summary
… one day, well off the Patagonian coast, while the sloop was reaching under short sail, a tremendous wave, the culmination, it seemed, of many waves, rolled down upon her in a storm, roaring as it came. I had only a moment to get all sail down and myself up on the peak halyards, out of danger when I saw the mighty crest towering masthead-high above me. The mountain of water submerged my vessel. She shook in every timber and reeled under the weight of the sea, but rose quickly out of it, and rode grandly over the rollers that followed. It may have been a minute that from my hold in the rigging I could see no part of the Spray's hull. Perhaps it was even less time than that, but it seemed a long while, for under great excitement one lives fast, and in a few seconds one may think a great deal of one's past life.
– Captain Joshua Slocum Sailing Alone Around the World, 1895During July 1994 while I was writing this book, fragments of the comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 crashed into Jupiter. As each fragment entered the Jovian atmosphere, it formed a shock wave, similar to the bow wave in front of a boat. Heat generated within these waves ignited the atmosphere of Jupiter creating fireballs the size of the earth.
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- Introduction to Wave Propagation in Nonlinear Fluids and Solids , pp. xiii - xviPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998