Where do waves come from and where do they go?
When the waves break with foam, our wave research begins!
Winner of the Royal Society Scientific Book Award
Another masterpiece from the Royal Meteorological Society Michael Hunt Award-winning author
A surfer captivated by the Hawaiian waves, recommended by KAIST Professor Jeon Eun-ji.

Gavin Pretterfinney, president of the Cloud Viewing Association, returns as a wave observer! While admiring the waves, which he never tires of, he asks a question.
Where do waves come from? How are they formed? He soon realizes that waves are waves, and decides to set out to find them in the world.
From waves in the body like heartbeats and brain waves, acoustic waves that transmit sound, electromagnetic waves used in airplanes and radios, light waves that color the world, seismic waves on the ground, even waves in stadiums and traffic jams… He speaks confidently after relentlessly studying various waves that started with scientific curiosity.
Waves exist everywhere! Now it's our turn to embark on a journey into a world filled with exciting developments and adventurous examples.

Just as the ripples simply passed beneath the seaweed without carrying it away, this gentle giant wave continued to surge beneath the fishing boats returning with their loads of fish.
If it were the current of water, it should have pulled the boat towards land, but it didn't.
The water that floated the boat seemed to return to its original position after each wave passed.
If the large waves seen from above, like the small waves seen up close, are not the movement of water, then what is it? What is the nature of that movement, rolling in from the distant sea toward the shore? --- p.14

The place where the waves occur is literally the heart, the center of life.
The means by which blood circulates throughout the body is waves.
The heart pumps 16,000 liters of oxygenated blood a day, circulating it through arteries, veins, and organs.
To do that, you have to beat 100,000 times a day.
Each and every one of those beats is in the form of a wave.
The contraction of the heart muscle looks so different from the ripples of a wave that you might wonder how they can both be called waves.
For example, what does a bar of soap slipping from your hand into the bathtub have in common with the ripples spreading across the surface of the water and the beating of a heart? --- p.53~54

The sound waves from all the instruments in the orchestra merge and reach us as one.
It can't be helped.
Because all sound waves occupy the same air.
At any given point in time, the air at any given location can only be compressed or expanded to a certain extent.
So all the sound waves combine to form one vibration pattern.
When this complex vibrational pattern of compression and expansion hits our eardrum, the eardrum vibrates in response.
It's truly amazing how our brains decipher that confusing series of vibrations.
By reading the minute movements of skin tissue that is only 7 millimeters wide and 0.07 millimeters thick, it is possible to detect even the sound of a violinist coughing in the middle of the second movement.
--- p.93

The essence of the hobby of wave observation is to notice things hidden in everyday life.
Of course, wave observers can find plenty of enjoyment in simply watching the waves without thinking about anything.
I think it could be the best meditation method.
But a wave observer in a broader sense is someone who finds connections and similarities between very different types of waves: visible waves, like waves on a beach, and invisible waves, like sound.
The undulating nature of the world is so subtle that many people live completely unaware of it, but it is so fundamental that once you become aware of it, you begin to see it everywhere.
--- p.119

Waves cannot be simply considered as the movement of energy.
Waves also carry information.
"Information" might not sound very romantic, but it's probably better than describing waves as "disturbing states propagating through a medium."
In any case, every wave inevitably contains clues about the disturbance that caused it.
--- p.134

"Come to think of it, I have absolutely no idea what electromagnetic waves are." Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night with a start, suddenly realizing something like that? Me neither.
But electromagnetic waves are everywhere around us, so it might be a good idea to learn about them now.
What makes electromagnetic waves crucially different from 'mechanical waves' such as sound waves or water waves is that they do not require a medium to propagate.
If so, we may need to modify our concept of waves.
It is not easy to imagine a wave traveling without a medium.
It is thought that for a wave to travel, there must be something physically moving.
Let's look at waves, for example.
It makes no sense to discuss waves without water.
A wave is a pattern of physical motion transmitted through a medium (in this case, 'water') and is therefore a mechanical wave.
--- p.165

What is a shock wave? Rather than being a type of wave like ocean waves, electromagnetic waves, or acoustic waves, shock waves are more like the appearance of these waves when you're "in a bad mood."
That is, when any type of wave becomes so intense that it behaves in a completely different way from its usual 'gentle' form, we call it a shock wave.
--- p.217

The easiest example of a shock wave is, of course, an explosion.
But explosions aren't just caused by humans.
One example is the massive volcanic eruption that blew away the summit of Krakatoa Island in Indonesia in 1883.
The atmospheric shock wave that occurred at this time reached London, 11,600 kilometers away, in 10 hours and 20 minutes.
The barometer at the Greenwich Observatory recorded a rapid rise in pressure followed by a rapid drop, after which the pressure gradually returned to normal.
--- p.220

If you ask a physicist, he'll tell you that cheering surfers aren't "real" waves.
Rather than the movement of energy through a medium, it is a phenomenon in which the medium uses energy to show some regular movement.
But still, to our eyes, it appears as a wave.
If so, I think there is enough reason to call it a real wave.
The same goes for the bee's butt dance and the amoebas gathering.
So what if they don't obey the same laws of physics as other waves? Their origins are inherently different.
Scientists may disagree.
Then I will respond with the butt dance of 50,000 bees.
--- p.262~263

How can scales, covered with a transparent surface and filled with dull brown pigment, emit such a brilliant blue? This blue is created by the physical structure of the transparent surface, and unlike other ordinary colors, it is called "structural color."
The transparent surface is made up of extremely thin layers placed at minute intervals.
Each layer reflects some of the light that hits it, and these lights combine to create a vibrant blue color.
What makes this possible is a phenomenon called ‘interference.’
Interference is a phenomenon that occurs when waves of the same type collide with each other, and it occurs not only in light but in all waves.
--- p.334~335

The significance of de Broglie's discovery goes beyond simply allowing us to peer into the infinitesimal world.
It is an incredible feat to have discovered that the wave-particle duality of light proposed by Einstein also applies to matter.
What de Broglie mathematically proposed and later experimentally proved was, in short, that any microscopic particle, if accelerated sufficiently fast, behaves like a wave.
This is true not only of electrons but also of atoms and molecules.
Do you get the sense? It means that if you break it up into small enough pieces and shoot it out fast enough, all matter has a wavelength.
--- p.366

January has finally arrived.
It's finally time to leave for Hawaii under the guise of a 'research trip'.
As the plane descended through the sunny clouds at Honolulu Airport on Oahu, I felt a sense of relief.
Now again, we can focus on the familiar waves that are clearly visible and tangible.
These are the waves right on the beach.
--- p.369

My heart was pounding as I waited for the next wave.
I pictured the tiny spiral waves of electrical signals that spread through the muscles of my chest each time my heart beat.
I pictured the sound of crashing waves spreading out like pressure waves through the air at the beach.
I pictured the sunlight pouring down from my head, warmly scattering over the sea as electromagnetic waves.
The moment the heavy, rising sea water pulled my body helplessly, I had a feeling that the next wave would be particularly big.
The entire surroundings, including me, began to slowly move as the energy rushed towards the end of the long journey across the Pacific.
Just as the wall of rising water was about to lift me up, I dug deep beneath the surface.
This time, I just wanted to become one with the water.
I wanted to surrender my body and become a medium imbued with the energy of the waves.

--- p.412~414