42: The Answer to Almost Everything

Episode Synopsis

Every seven days, a large ship goes missing. This is due, among other things, to monstrous waves that appear out of nowhere. Unlike tsunamis, there is currently no method for warning or predicting them. This is because science still knows surprisingly little about the phenomenon of "freak waves." Rogue waves were long considered sailors' tales until a 26-meter-high wave was recorded on the Draupner platform in the North Sea in 1995. This changed research and led to three theories about their formation: the current model, superposition, and nonlinear modulation instability.