Re: Shocks and Kelvin wakes

[Larry Woolf <larry.woolf@GAT.COM>]

I learned about the Kelvin ship wave pattern (and have since forgotten it)
using "Linear and Nonlinear Waves" by G. B. Whitham, Wiley 1974. The
derivation is on pages 409-410.

Larry Woolf
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: Leigh Palmer
> Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2003 10:14 AM
> Subject: Re: Shocks and Kelvin wakes

> Boat wakes are much more complicated than shock waves in air. They were
> first partially explained by Lord Kelvin, and the vee-shaped component
> is called the "Kelvin wake", though as you will see from the photo
> referred to below, there is much more structure to it than that. The
> vee-shaped component is geometrical in nature. The Kelvin wake always
> opens at 19.5 degrees half angle, regardless of the boat's (constant)
> speed.
>
> Derivation of the 19.5 degree vee can be found in a (small) number of
> texts, and I didn't find a good one on the web in a cursory googling.