A soliton is a non-linear object which moves through space without dispersion at constant speed. They occur naturally as solutions to the Korteweg - de Vries equation. They were first observed by John Scott Russell in the 19th century and then by Martin Kruskal and Norman Zabusky (who coined the term soliton) in a famous computer simulation in 1965. Insight into solitons can be obtained by noting that the Korteweg - de Vries equation satisfies D'Alembert's solution:
As of this snapshot date, this entry was owned by invisiblerhino.