ABSTRACT
The uplift of an infinite plate floating on a fluid of finite depth is studied with a view to inverting the forcing required to produce prescribed dynamics. The problem is ill posed and the potential of the forcing is the solution of a Volterra integral equation of the first kind and of convolution type. Analysis shows that the degree of ill-posedness is moderate and reveals that the initial rate of forcing is proportional to the initial acceleration of the plate. For error-free data, this analytical result, and a nonuniform mesh, are used to numerically compute the forcing to three decimal places.