This explanation from the text Mike sugggests is the same explanation I've long heard from reliable sources: ----- • Water on the side of Earth facing the moon is pulled hardest by the moon’s gravity. This causes a bulge of water on that side of Earth. That bulge is a high tide. • Earth itself is pulled harder by the moon’s gravity than is the ocean on the side of Earth opposite the moon. As a result, there is bulge of water on the opposite side of Earth. This creates another high tide. • With water bulging on two sides of Earth, there’s less water left in between. This creates low tides on the other two sides of the planet. ----- But I'm curious: * Are the tides on the sides of the earth nearest and farthest from the moon symmetrical? * If so, why (since the reasons given for those tides are different) ? --Dan On 2014-02-11, at 2:17 PM, Mike Stay wrote:
On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 2:41 PM, Bill Gosper <billgosper@gmail.com> wrote:
PS, has anyone ever found a correct explanation of tides in a middle or high school text?
http://www.ck12.org/earth-science/Tides/lesson/Tides-Basic/
-- Mike Stay - metaweta@gmail.com http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~mike http://reperiendi.wordpress.com
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