This is the
talk page for discussing improvements to the
Rip current article. This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject. |
Article policies
|
Find sources: Google ( books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL |
This
level-5 vital article is rated C-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The lifeguard page linked says "The United States Lifesaving Association estimates that the annual number of deaths due to rip currents on our nation's beaches exceeds 100", while the wikipedia page says 1000 deaths/year. Presumably this should be changed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.110.227.93 ( talk • contribs)
-I changed the passage that suggested that undertow and rip tide are incorrect terms. I hate it when people say what terms are somehow incorrect, by that logic most words are incorrect since they don't litterally represent what they are named after.- —Preceding unsigned comment added by Julian Diamond ( talk • contribs)
"A common misconception is that a rip occurring under the water, instead of on top — an undertow — is strong enough to drag people under the water; this is not true."
I don't think this statement is true. I've been in each of the Great Lakes during high waves (+2m) and I can tell you without hesitation that the "undertow" effect can most certainly pull a person off their feet if standing in the water, and quite possibly under the surface if one is not prepared. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.50.23.9 ( talk • contribs)
Can someone who knows please add a real section about Undertow?
Undertow is a disambiguation page which (wrongly or rightly) suggests
Rip current.
Thanks! Ewlyahoocom 01:57, 27 April 2006 (UTC)
As waves propagate toward shore, there is a net shoreward mass transport (called Stokes drift) which occurs between crest and trough. As the wave breaks, the mass transport is increased. The return current is distributed between the bottom and the trough of the wave. When averaged over a wave period, this is what is typically called the "undertow". The difference between this and rip currents is that an undertow will always occur - it is simply a consequence of the mass balance. When the surf is very energetic, the undertow increases in strength correspondingly. Rip currents, however, depend on spatial variability in breaking to occur. Jmkstrat 00:46, 13 June 2007 (UTC)
Backwash Current The receding swash on the beach face, after a wavebreaks, joins the seaward movement of the wave trough tword the next incoming crest. The same orbital wave movement that causes a ball to bob up and down on the water causes the trough to move back and up toward the next wave crest. This is not what the word "undertow" suggests, and this term should not be used.
Seaward Currents This is an umbrella term that excludes only littoral currents. All surf zone currents are either littoral (along the shore) or seaward (away from shore).
Not only does the article lack a section on undertow, but in one place the article says a rip current is "not to be confused with an undertow", then later it says, "a rip occurring under the water, instead of on top — an undertow". The first statement implies they are mutually exclusive terms, and the second implies that undertows are rip currents. 198.70.193.2 ( talk) 22:22, 21 July 2009 (UTC)
I added a brief paragraph explaining the rip current mechanism in terms of radiation stress. Jmkstrat 00:48, 13 June 2007 (UTC)
I think that the third paragraph under Dangers should be deleted, as it is redundant and unnecessary, and appears to be taken from a news article and is not written in encyclopedic style. MHKathmandu 22:38, 22 June 2007 (UTC)
Shouldn't there be something about how to get out of a rip current? I don't see why it's been repeatedly erased since it's really the only useful knowledge applicable to the real world. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.174.23.136 ( talk) 23:11, 27 August 2009 (UTC)
... Cdg18 ( talk) 06:19, 25 December 2008 (UTC)
I believe it is entirely possible to include that info without turning the article into a "how-to" manual. So I added it. One can swim a few stokes parallel to the shore to exit the rip, or one can tread water or float on one's back to let the rip carry you to where it is going and then decide what to do, either swim back to shore via a safe route or signal for help if you can't swim well enough.
Invertzoo (
talk)
15:18, 8 July 2014 (UTC)
The results of new research will soon be published. Fred Talk 14:21, 1 September 2009 (UTC)
The term Rip current here stated is incorrect. There is a major difference between a riptide and hence the undertoe and something called Rip current. Currents move perpendicular to the shore line and flow only in one direction. The term 'rip current' is now being used by weather forcasters and media reporting services and is wrong. Where the term is incorrectly used, the user should be corrected so that organizations such as the US Lifesaving Association will not provide inaccurate information. The swells come in and the undertoe goes out and the current runs against the surf!!! Please get is right. There is actually no such thing as a rip current. Thank you —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.71.223.29 ( talk) 13:42, 4 September 2010 (UTC)
Ref. #7 has crapped out. TheoThoughts ( talk) 14:29, 28 August 2011 (UTC)
This is the
talk page for discussing improvements to the
Rip current article. This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject. |
Article policies
|
Find sources: Google ( books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL |
This
level-5 vital article is rated C-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The lifeguard page linked says "The United States Lifesaving Association estimates that the annual number of deaths due to rip currents on our nation's beaches exceeds 100", while the wikipedia page says 1000 deaths/year. Presumably this should be changed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.110.227.93 ( talk • contribs)
-I changed the passage that suggested that undertow and rip tide are incorrect terms. I hate it when people say what terms are somehow incorrect, by that logic most words are incorrect since they don't litterally represent what they are named after.- —Preceding unsigned comment added by Julian Diamond ( talk • contribs)
"A common misconception is that a rip occurring under the water, instead of on top — an undertow — is strong enough to drag people under the water; this is not true."
I don't think this statement is true. I've been in each of the Great Lakes during high waves (+2m) and I can tell you without hesitation that the "undertow" effect can most certainly pull a person off their feet if standing in the water, and quite possibly under the surface if one is not prepared. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.50.23.9 ( talk • contribs)
Can someone who knows please add a real section about Undertow?
Undertow is a disambiguation page which (wrongly or rightly) suggests
Rip current.
Thanks! Ewlyahoocom 01:57, 27 April 2006 (UTC)
As waves propagate toward shore, there is a net shoreward mass transport (called Stokes drift) which occurs between crest and trough. As the wave breaks, the mass transport is increased. The return current is distributed between the bottom and the trough of the wave. When averaged over a wave period, this is what is typically called the "undertow". The difference between this and rip currents is that an undertow will always occur - it is simply a consequence of the mass balance. When the surf is very energetic, the undertow increases in strength correspondingly. Rip currents, however, depend on spatial variability in breaking to occur. Jmkstrat 00:46, 13 June 2007 (UTC)
Backwash Current The receding swash on the beach face, after a wavebreaks, joins the seaward movement of the wave trough tword the next incoming crest. The same orbital wave movement that causes a ball to bob up and down on the water causes the trough to move back and up toward the next wave crest. This is not what the word "undertow" suggests, and this term should not be used.
Seaward Currents This is an umbrella term that excludes only littoral currents. All surf zone currents are either littoral (along the shore) or seaward (away from shore).
Not only does the article lack a section on undertow, but in one place the article says a rip current is "not to be confused with an undertow", then later it says, "a rip occurring under the water, instead of on top — an undertow". The first statement implies they are mutually exclusive terms, and the second implies that undertows are rip currents. 198.70.193.2 ( talk) 22:22, 21 July 2009 (UTC)
I added a brief paragraph explaining the rip current mechanism in terms of radiation stress. Jmkstrat 00:48, 13 June 2007 (UTC)
I think that the third paragraph under Dangers should be deleted, as it is redundant and unnecessary, and appears to be taken from a news article and is not written in encyclopedic style. MHKathmandu 22:38, 22 June 2007 (UTC)
Shouldn't there be something about how to get out of a rip current? I don't see why it's been repeatedly erased since it's really the only useful knowledge applicable to the real world. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.174.23.136 ( talk) 23:11, 27 August 2009 (UTC)
... Cdg18 ( talk) 06:19, 25 December 2008 (UTC)
I believe it is entirely possible to include that info without turning the article into a "how-to" manual. So I added it. One can swim a few stokes parallel to the shore to exit the rip, or one can tread water or float on one's back to let the rip carry you to where it is going and then decide what to do, either swim back to shore via a safe route or signal for help if you can't swim well enough.
Invertzoo (
talk)
15:18, 8 July 2014 (UTC)
The results of new research will soon be published. Fred Talk 14:21, 1 September 2009 (UTC)
The term Rip current here stated is incorrect. There is a major difference between a riptide and hence the undertoe and something called Rip current. Currents move perpendicular to the shore line and flow only in one direction. The term 'rip current' is now being used by weather forcasters and media reporting services and is wrong. Where the term is incorrectly used, the user should be corrected so that organizations such as the US Lifesaving Association will not provide inaccurate information. The swells come in and the undertoe goes out and the current runs against the surf!!! Please get is right. There is actually no such thing as a rip current. Thank you —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.71.223.29 ( talk) 13:42, 4 September 2010 (UTC)
Ref. #7 has crapped out. TheoThoughts ( talk) 14:29, 28 August 2011 (UTC)