Definitions

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  • adjective mathematics, physics Describes a travelling wave whose amplitude is constricted; e.g. a wave in shallow water.

Etymologies

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The term cnoidal was coined by Korteweg and de Vries in their paper in Philosophical Magazine (1895, series 5, vol 39, pp 422-443) to describe a class of solutions to the KdV equation which involve a Jacobi elliptic function. The Jacobi elliptic function involved is commonly written as , and the term cnoidal was designed to be analogous to sinusoidal, the word describing waves which involve the sine function.

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