Wind wave may be written as: where C is speed (in meters per second), g is the acceleration due to gravity, and d is the depth of the water (in meters). The period of a wave remains unchanged regardless of the depth of water through which it is moving. As deep-water waves enter the shallows and feel the bottom, however, their speed is reduced and their crests "bunch up," so their wavelength shortens. As waves travel from deep to shallow water, their shape alters (wave height increases, speed decreases, and length decreases as wave orbits become asymmetrical). This process is called shoaling.
Propagation constant of transmission lines, the term transmission coefficient has a different meaning despite the similarity of name: it is the companion of the reflection coefficient. The propagation constant, symbol formula_1, for a given system is defined by the ratio of the complex amplitude at the source of the wave to the complex amplitude at some distance "x", such that, Since the propagation constant is a complex quantity we can write: where That "β" does indeed represent phase can be seen from Euler's formula: which is a sinusoid which varies in phase as "θ" varies but does not vary in amplitude because