TITLE:
Rip Currents Have Least Friction
AUTHORS:
Kern E. Kenyon
KEYWORDS:
Rip Currents, Least Friction
JOURNAL NAME:
Natural Science,
Vol.12 No.5,
May
15,
2020
ABSTRACT: Surface
gravity waves continually come to the beach but rarely go back to sea. They
bring excess mass to shore which must be returned offshore. Rip currents do
that job because there is less overall friction in the nearshore region than
there is in the only other imagined circulation, a two-layer scheme, which has
in fact never been seen. An argument is presented to support this proposal. If
correct, rip currents join a group of geophysical flow phenomena that persist, probably
because there is zero friction associated with them, which include surface
gravity waves, tornadoes and hurricanes, individually promoted recently.