#wave formation

In the days when even hand pumps were hard to come by, there were firemen like Ben Franklin.  They depended on the efforts of the whole town when fighting fires.  The community came together to save life, limb, and property by creating a bucket brigade, a swinging human chain connecting water and fire.  

           Community spirit and life saving acts are fine and dandy, but how about that cool undulating action of the buckets as they worked their way down the line?  Look at this caterpillar walking on a string.  It is simple footage, but you get a clear look at his graceful feet.  The motion is just that of a tiny bucket brigade, minus, of course, the buckets.  

Nature shows us this same kind of passing motion in the wave formation of water.  Waves do not march across the ocean surface.  Particles of water rise and fall as the energy of a wave is passed forward like our fire brigade's bucket.  

If I toss a message in a bottle into the ocean it will not hop onto the back of some packet of sea water and ride it's way to Hawaii.  It will instead spend most of its time bobbing up and down as waves pass under it.  

The appeal of undulation is recognized in some cultures in dance.  The belly dancer shown here moves her body like the water brigade, the caterpillar, and the wave and turns that give and take, to and fro into a uniquely human expression of beauty and grace.