Past exam of the physics course of the year 1 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge / 2019 / Section A / 4

Use base dimensions $\mathsf{M},\mathsf{L},\mathsf{T}$ for mass, length and time. The proposed dimensional analysis givessoEquating the independent dimensional powers requiresConsequentlyThe mass density drops out because there is no other mass-bearing quantity with which to combine it under the stated assumptions.

Dimensional analysis fixes the powers but leaves a dimensionless coefficient undetermined. For a linear deep-water gravity wave, the dispersion relation is ${\omega }^2=gk$, giving phase velocity $\omega /k=g/\omega$ and group velocity $d\omega /dk=g/(2\omega )$. Both obey the inferred scaling. The phrase wave speed alone does not distinguish these two velocities or fix the coefficient.