Explanation for Malischewsky’s approximate expression for the Rayleigh wave velocity

An approach for obtaining approximations of the Rayleigh wave velocity created by the principle of least squares is introduced. In view of this approach, Malischewsky’s approximation of the Rayleigh wave velocity for Poisson ratios ν ∈ [−1, 0.5] proposed quite recently [3] is explained. It is shown that Malischewsky’s approximation obtained by trial and error is (almost) identical with the one established by this approach.