![just into the waves just into the waves](https://cdn1.theinertia.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/heartwave.jpg)
When air heats up, it expands and as a result, it rises. We spin in and out of sunlight every 24 hours so everything on out planet is constantly heating up and cooling down, including our atmosphere. On the other side (the night side) things are cooling down again. Wind is moving air and the reason air moves is because the Sun heats up everything on one side of the planet (the day side) including the air. But to answer where waves come from is really to answer where wind comes from, and the answer is the Sun! There are heaps of variables which will affect the shape and size of waves. On the ocean, with nothing to stop them and much deeper water under them, these ripples continue to grow as the wind continues to push them. You’ve probably seen little baby waves being born on lakes and ponds on windy days. So where does this energy come from? Well, waves are generated by wind out on the ocean. That’s like lifting thousands of cars so there is a heck of a lot of energy moving around out there in the ocean. Even the smallest waves we can surf lift thousands of cubic metres of water as they move along. A cubic metre of water is not very much water at all – it fits in a cube one metre high, one metre wide and one metre deep. Think about this and you’ll see that wave energy is huge one cubic metre of water weighs one tonne. Behind the wave it falls and rises again a few times which is why you get more than one ripple from a stone falling into a pond. Waves are a form of energy which in the case of ocean waves, lifts water up as it moves along.