文档介绍：The Wave of Translation
In 1834, while conducting experiments to determine the most efficient
design for canal boats, he discovered a phenomenon that he described as
the Wave of Translation. In fluid dynamics the wave is now called a Russell
solitary wave. The discovery is described here in his own words:
"I was observing the motion of a boat which was rapidly drawn along a narrow
channel by a pair of horses, when the boat suddenly stopped - not so the
mass of water in the channel which it had put in motion; it accumulated
round the prow of the vessel in a state of violent agitation, then suddenly
leaving it behind, rolled forward with great velocity, assuming the form
of a large solitary elevation, a rounded, smooth and well-defined heap
of water, which continued its course along the channel apparently without
change of form or diminution of speed. I followed it on horseback, and
overtook it still rolling on at a rate of some eight or nine miles an hour,
preserving its original figure some thirty feet long and a foot to a foot
and a half in height. Its height gradually diminished, and after a chase
of one or two miles I lost it in the windings of the channel. Such, in
the month of August 1834, was my first chance interview with that singular
and beautiful phenomenon which I have called the Wave of Translation".
J. Scott Russell. Report on