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How tides work (how teachers get it wrong)


RichP714

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He gets some of it right.  I was in Honors physics class in my first year, and one assignment was to mathematically describe the tides.  I got the right answers at selected points, but not the overall function.  Function was 3rd order and had an R^3 in it.  The way to find the solution is as he says, to treat earth as totally covered in water.  Then you assume if there is a change in gravitational potential, water will flow.  So the whole earth has an equipotential surface.  Calculate that, and you have the tides.  I think it was about a meter.

 

The reason why Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia has such high tides is because there's a body of water that has a resonant frequency equal to the tidal period.  Water sloshes in and out with a period of 12 hours.

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13 hours ago, jvandyke_texas said:

.....The reason why Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia has such high tides is because there's a body of water that has a resonant frequency equal to the tidal period.  Water sloshes in and out with a period of 12 hours.

 

Yes, I'm not sure why he didn't explore that; perhaps he didn't want to obfuscate the main topic

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