Killer Waves: Get the Facts

Most student do not understand physics because they failed to appreciate & apply what they 've learned. In fact if u can appreciate the physics behind God's creation as well as man made innovation, then u'll find physics very interesting. 
The problem with some students, they find physics as a borring subject because they limit themselves by only reading textbook, teachers' note or SPM's reference book. 


How can i learn physics in interesting way??
The answer is simple...if u do extra research, u'll discover plenty of  interesting facts about physics.
Ok lets start with the first chapter of form 5 , i.e wave. One of the inersting facts about water wave is the creation of killer waves known as TSUNAMI. I believed that most of us can still recall event of  tsunami that happened in Penang, Phuket ,Acheh and some of the regions of Asia in December 2004. It was a shocking tragedy that killed more than 100 000 lives and left others injured, homeless and struggling to survive.


Here are some of the facts that u may want to know about TSUNAMI:


1.What causes a tsunami?
In SPM we learned that wave can be produced through series of disturbance or vibration. The same basic concept applied with creation of Tsunami.When an undersea earthquake or other major disturbance causes a section of the ocean floor to suddenly rise or sink, the mass of water above the affected area also rises or sinks. This unexpected movement of the water creates a series of powerful waves.

Tsunami waves spread out from where a large body of water has been disturbed, similar to the way ripples move away from the place where a rock has been dropped into a pond

How big & How fast the tsunami?

We must appreciate that the amplitude of the wave represents energy. The higher the amplitude, the bigger the energy of the waves. We also should notice that water move faster at deeper region, but the speed decrease as it approaches shallow region due to refraction phenomena.

So, how it is related to TSUNAMI??

In the deep ocean, the waves that are created have a large wavelength but are not usually bigger than one metre tall. A tsunami wave can reach up to hundreds of kilometres in length and it moves at a high speed across great distances without losing much of its energy. ( recall : v = f x lambda

)

In the open ocean, a tsunami can travel as fast as 950 kilometres per hour, which can be represented by the speed of a passenger jet. It loses speed as it approaches land, but it does not lose much of its energy. Once reaches the land, the wave rise dramatically as much as 100 feet at times. This means that, there is huge increase in amplitude and its ENERGY. No wonder its flooding effect has destroyed most part of Aceh and 

other affected countries.