Boussinesq approximation (water waves)

Okay, so imagine you are sitting in a bathtub and you splash the water with your hand. You see that there are waves all around the bathtub. These are called water waves. Now, when scientists study these waves in the real world, they use something called the Boussinesq approximation to make their calculations easier.

So, the Boussinesq approximation is like a trick that helps scientists to make calculations about water waves without having to consider many complicated factors. It is named after a scientist called Joseph Boussinesq who came up with this method in the 19th century.

Now, the Boussinesq approximation assumes that the waves are happening in deep waters and that the changes in water pressure are really small compared to the speed of the waves. This allows scientists to simplify their equations and make calculations more easily.

To explain it to you in simpler terms, it's like when you play a game of pretend and you imagine that you are a knight, but you coolly skip over all the boring "real" stuff that would get in the way.

So that's what the Boussinesq approximation is - a way for scientists to study water waves more easily by simplifying their calculations.