190Tutorial10

• Tutorial as discussed with Nick and Stephen

Why is a forest fire like a Mexican Wave? Why or why not? Is a forest fire like a water wave? Why or why or why not?

A forest fire is like a Mexican Wave. They are both excitable waves. A forest fire and a mexican wave both propagate by an excited neighbor in the medium. Both a forest and a crowd in a stadium can not support the passing of more than one wave at the same time. At least not until a certain amount of time has passed, known as the refractory time.

For this same reason, a forest fire is not like a water wave. A water wave is a linear wave. Water, unlike forests can carry multiple waves at the same point and allow them to pass through each other without the need for a refractory time. When the fronts of a forest fire meet, they simply stop where they meet and do not propagate through each other.