G=EMC^2 Glazier wrote:
Hi Rl What is a Soliton ? Bert

You have me there, Bert!

.... So I am going to have to hold my breath, hummm and haahhhh and
provide a stunning display of my ignorance. I lack all confidence in
what I say ... and put it crudely and incorrectly. Neverthess ...

A soliton is a nonlinear wave transmission phenomonen.
soliton ... as in solitary wave!

They *may* possess some of these properties ( my ignorance and lack of
confidence is showing )

- a singlular amplitude wave constitutes a wave train

- different solitons can propogate at different velocities in the same
media

- when these waves collide, they do NOT linearly superimpose.
Amplitudes do NOT add/accumulate in a linear way !!!!

Please Note! They are nothing like the waves that we are more commonly
familiar.

Solitons probably describe freak waves. The nonlinear underlying
properties which enable the phenomenon to arise at the outset, IMO, are
likely to influence many situations wherein waves are considered.

For me, it's a bit of a wonder that the linear reality exists at all!

I've always considered soliton type activity to be important, diverse
phenomonen. I was introoduced to the concept decades ago and would have
thought that solitons would be more widely known by now. I have been
completely out of touch with the field for many years.

Best I can do, Bert. Sorry ...

Here are some Googled references:

As a teaser, look at this one first:
http://www.ma.hw.ac.uk/solitons/soliton1.html


Thence look at the webpage it was sublinked from. This provides a good
non technical description.
http://www.ma.hw.ac.uk/~chris/scott_russell.html

Beyond that these 2 links will get you going.
http://www.usf.uni-osnabrueck.de/~kbrauer/solitons.html
http://www.ma.hw.ac.uk/solitons/

Also see the Wikipedia blurb which is sparse
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soliton

Without doubt, someone else could explain it much better to you.

RL