The paper examines the applicability of known linear wave theories to numerical simulations of two, zonally invariant, fundamental problems of Physical Oceanography: Geostrophic adjustment and Ekman Adjustment. By simulating the problems with a modified version of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology General Circulation Model (MITgcm) we show that neither of the known wave theories can explain the results of the simulations in large and small meridional domains and for long and short times.