Interference of Waves in a Pool: Still Surface & Heating Effects

[philrainey]

I'm trying to increase my understanding of what happens to waves with interference so I'll ask the following question to try and do so.
If one had a pool of water with a wave machine pulling the side in and out all along one side and an identical wave machine on the other side working in another phrase can it be possible to have a still surface on the pool, and if you can does the energy from the wave machines still heat up the water just as much?

 

[Ibix]

No. Your energetic argument is enough, I think. The equations describing wave motion would work in an ideal, continuous medium with no thermal motion. In that case there would be no mechanism to convert the ordered wave energy into disordered thermal energy, so where would the energy go? The best you can do is a standing wave, where some points on the surface are stationary, but the parts in between go up and down without appearing to move horizontally.