# Why doesn't linear wave theory produce phase velocities that agree with each other?

I'm not sure I understand the dispersion relationship for water waves. According to Wikipedia, the wavelength of ocean wave at arbitrary depth is given by:

$$\left(\frac{2\pi}{T}\right)^2 = \frac{2\pi g}{\lambda}\times\tanh \left(\frac{2 \pi h}{\lambda}\right)$$

And the phase velocity is given by:

$$C_p=\sqrt{\frac{g}{2\pi/\lambda}\tanh(2\pi/\lambda \times h)}$$

I believe the phase velocity should also equal:

$$C_p=\frac{\lambda}{T}$$

Using the first equation, I can solve for the wavelength when T=14 and h=40 and get:

$$\lambda=239.2848$$

But, then why do I get different phase velocities when using the two equations above?

$$C_p=\sqrt{\frac{g}{2\pi/239.2848}\tanh(2\pi/239.2848 \times h)}=10.92263$$

vs:

$$C_p=\frac{\lambda}{T}=\frac{239.2848}{14}=17.09177$$

Why don't these two phase velocities agree (10.9 vs. 17.09)?

The phase velocity is actually: $$C_p=\sqrt{\frac{g}{k}\tanh(k h)}$$
• It's true that I used the dispersion relation to compute the wavelength from the period, but I used the equation you gave to compute the phase velocity once I had the wavelength, which I believe is needed to compute k: $$k=\frac{2\pi}{lambda}$$ – Kris Rasmussen Dec 12 '14 at 2:09
• @KrisRasmussen $k=2*pi/ \lambda$ when you put that into the equations, it gives almost the same results (up to rounding) – Wolphram jonny Dec 12 '14 at 2:19