How a Wave is Formed (This will get interesting, I assure you)

Waves are all around us. For the most part, generally speaking a wave is the transfer of energy through the air, water, space or any other environment, with the wave coming from one point causing a disturbance.

For example, a rock thrown into a lake makes a splash in the water. This, in turn, causes waves to be formed and continue on as they expand. These waves move in the opposite direction of the spot where the rock first hit the water.

Waves can be found in a variety of different environments. The pluck of a guitar string can initiate sound waves that travel in the room where the guitarist is sitting. Waves even exist in microwaves and on the radio, creating waves without any particular medium, but instead in a vacuum-like scenario. Waves can also be found in X-Rays, infared rays, gamma rays and in light. Nature creates it's own waves: From the seismic waves created from an earthquake, transferring the energy from the epicenter to locations far beyond it, to even light waves, which originate from the sun.

Believe it or not, the creation and evolution of a wave has a mathematical formula.

This equation attempts to find the amplitude of a wave, or the maximum distance from the highest point of the disturbance in the medium (the crest) to the equilibrium point during one wave cycle.

My brain hurts too........

Now that we are done with that portion of the blog, now comes the meat part of how to form a wave in particular. Though the science behind waves in general seems complicated and only comprehensible to those in glasses and lovers of Tolkien novels, the actual occurrence is rather simple; it is easy to make any number of waves. Just throw a rock in a pool, or speak, or nuke a T.V. dinner.

The wave I wish to explain in more detail is the opposite of natural waves. This wave can be found at any sporting event, the origin of which is currently unknown. I speak of the one fans in stadiums do everywhere in the world during a game or match, commonly known as the wave.

Nothing in science quite like it......

As many of you know (whether you cared or not), I treated myself to a Braves exhibition game last night as a birthday present to me. It was great seeing my man crush Jason Heyward choose not to get a hit during the game. I had a lot of fun with the family in the left field pavilion seats. There were quite a view humorous instances I could have blogged about (battling for batting practice balls for example) but the experience I had in watching others try and create the wave in the ball park topped everything that happened.

Much like the natural wave, the wavve is a transfer of energy: Raising your butt off the seat while lifting both arms high in the air, accompanied by cheering or yelling, then sitting back down. When a whole section does this, the energy can be transferred to the next section and then the next and so on, and so on, until you have the whole stadium doing one continuous wave.

Seems straightforward right? Last night, for some reason, it wasn't.

It was around the seventh inning. Sitting to the right of us, a group of twenty drunk friends were desperately trying to form a wave. The formula in this wave has nothing to do with any unseen force or natural occurrence. I have written out the wave formula so as to make it easier on those not familiar with this brand of math:

Hormones + Girlfriends they want to impress + Untold quantities of alcohol= The Wave.

The leader of the group stood on his seat and at the top of his lungs would scream:

"ARE YA'LL READY????"

Those around him in his group would respond "YES!!"

Then:

"ONE! TWO! THREE!!!!!"

They all proceeded to stand up and raise their arms in the air and shout. The wave however only reached the right field stands before fizzling out on the third base line seats. Once again, our fearless leader stood up again to address the devoted left field seat followers. This time, an extra variable was added to the formula in the left-center field seats, as another guy separate from the group stood up to convey our leader's message further down the line to other fans. We didn't want anyone confused with the instructions, of course.

"YA'LL READY????"

At this point, I had been persuaded to join in the response, and I didn't even need an ounce of alcohol!

"YES!!!!!!!!"

"ONE! TWO! THREE!!!!!!"

Once again, the wave started out vigorously, only to yet again be dismantled by the third base line fans. This process was repeated about fifteen times before other the cups of alcohol dried up and something else distracted their attention. The wave idea was shelved for the rest of the game.

I learned four things last night. How pathetic my man crush on Jason Heyward has become (I videotaped his entire first at-bat but still don't care.) It takes roughly seven innings for vast amounts of alcohol to take effect. Never underestimate the lung power of a drunk in shouting demands. And the wave is as difficult to attempt as it is to explain the mathematical formula of a natural wave.

Will that stop us from attempting again at the next home game? Of course not!

YA'LL READY???????????

ONE! TWO! THREEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.................................