Discuss how ripples are formed in still water.

Explanation

Suppose we drop a stone in a trough of still water, it can be seen disturbance produced at the place where the stone striks the wate surface. It is found that this disturbance spreads out (diverges out) in the form of concentri circles of ever increasing radii (ripples) then the strike the boundary of the trough. It is because some of the kinetic energy of the stone is transmitted to the water molecules on the surface. Actually the particles of the water (medium) themselves do not move outward with the distrubance. This can be observed keeping a paper strip on the waer surface. The strip moves up and down when the dsitrubance (wave) passes on the water surface. This shows that the water surface. Thsi shows that the water molecules only undergo vibratory motion about their mean positions.