I. On the waves produced by a single impulse in water of any depth, or in a dispersive medium

Abstract

For brevity and simplicity consider only the case of two-dimensional motion . All that it is necessary to know of the medium is the relation between the wave-velocity and the wave-length of an endless procession of periodic waves. The result of our work will show us that the velocity of progress of a zero, or maximum, or minimum, in any part of a varying group of waves, is equal to the velocity of progress of periodic waves of wave-length equal to a certain length, which may be defined as the wave-length in the neighbourhood of the particular point looked to in the group (a length which will generally be intermediate between the distances from the point considered to its next-neighbour corresponding points on its two sides).