High-speed video study reveals the nature of the cobra wave

A small team of researchers from multiple institutions in France has learned more about the properties of the "cobra wave" by building structures from popsicle sticks and filming wave progressions with a high-speed camera. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, Jean-Philippe Boucher, Christophe Clanet, David Quéré and Frédéric Chevy describe the series of experiments they carried out with the sticks and what they learned in the process.