[NBLUG/talk] Totally OT, a physics puzzle...

[sms at sonic.net]

So, sitting in a "Cisco Academy" class & looking at the semi-famous
Cisco poster (of a breaker cresting over the GG Bridge), the student
next to me & I disagreed about whether or not the bridge would survive
such a wave.

One of us feels that the wave is so large & that fluid dynamics demands
that such a large wave will be moving so fast, that it'll take down the
bridge.

The other points out that it's *only* water, & will flow freely, & the
bridge *is* built to flex; that it'll survive.


Can anyone provide the physics to show why either (or both) of us are
right, or wrong?



- Steve S.