Media Connection longer being acted upon by the force that created them and do

Start off this chapter by watching not require a maintaining force to keep them in motion.)
a video covering new technology The Greek navigator and explorer Pytheas rst wrote of the
using tides to generate power connection between the position of the moon and the height
off the coast of Great Britain. Visit of a tide around 300 . . ., but full understanding of tides had
www.cengagebrain.com to access to await Newton’s analysis of gravitation. Among many other
MindTap, a complete digital course things, Isaac Newton’s brilliant 1687 book Philosophiae Naturalis
that includes this video and other Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philoso-
resources. phy) describes the motions of planets, moons, and all other bod-
BBC ies in gravitational elds. A central nding: The pull of gravity
between two bodies is proportional to the masses of the bodies
but inversely proportional to the square of the distance between
11.1 Tides Are the Longest of All Ocean them. This nding means that heavy bodies attract each other
Waves more strongly than light bodies do and that gravitational attrac-
tion quickly weakens as the distance grows larger. This may be
Tides are periodic, short-term changes in the height of the expressed mathematically as
ocean surface at a particular place, caused by a combination
of the gravitational force of the moon and sun, the motion of m1m2
F 5 Ga b
Earth, and the inertia of water (Figure 11.1). With a wavelength r2
that can equal half of Earth’s circumference, tides are the longest where F is the gravitational attraction, G is the universal gravita-
of all waves. Unlike the other waves we have met, these huge tional constant, m1 and m2 are the masses of the two bodies, and r
shallow-water waves are never free of the forces that cause them is the distance between their centers. We can use this equation to
and thus are called forced waves. (After they are formed, wind calculate the gravitational attraction between the sun and Earth
waves, seiches, and tsunami are free waves, that is, they are no or between the moon and Earth.
Although the main cause of tides is the combined gravita-
tional attraction of the moon and sun acting on the ocean, the
forces that actually generate the tides vary inversely with the
cube of the distance from Earth’s center to the center of the tide-
generating object (the moon or sun). Distance is thus even more
important in this relationship, which may be expressed as
m1m2
T 5 Ga b
r3
where T is the tide-generating force, G is the universal gravita-
tional constant, m1 and m2 are the masses of the two bodies, and

Figure 11.1 Prediction of the arrival times of high and low tides is pos-
sible because of our understanding of the physics involved. Tourists at
this shore in New Brunswick, Canada—famous for its extreme tides—
Tom Garrison

ignore these predictions at their peril. (Figure 11.17 shows where this
photo was taken.)

316 C H AP T ER 1 1
r is the distance between their centers. The forms instantly to the forces that affect the
sun is about 27 million times as massive as
the moon, but the sun is about 387 times as
“
The seas are the heart’s
blood of the earth. Plucked
position of its surface; the ocean surface is
presumed always to be in equilibrium (bal-
far away as the moon, so the sun’s in uence ance) with the forces acting on it.
on the tides is only 46% that of the moon’s. up and kneaded by the sun
As we will see, Newton’s gravitational and the moon, the tides are
model of tides—the equilibrium theory— The Movement of the Moon
systole and diastole Generates Strong Tractive
”
deals primarily with the position and attrac-
tion of Earth, moon, and sun and does not of Earth’s veins. Forces
factor in the in uence on tides of ocean depth —HENRY BESTON We begin our examination of these forces
or the positions of continental landmasses. by looking at the moon’s effect on the ocean
The equilibrium theory would accurately surface. Gravity tends to pull Earth and the
describe tides on a planet uniformly covered moon toward each other, but inertia—the
by water. A modi cation proposed by Pierre-Simon Laplace about tendency of moving objects to continue in a straight line—keeps
a century later—the dynamic theory—takes into account the speed them apart. Earth and the moon don’t smash into each other (or
of the long-wavelength tide wave in relatively shallow water, the y apart) because they are in a stable orbit; their mutual gravita-
presence of interfering continents, and the circular movement or tional attraction is exactly offset by their inertia (Figure 11.2).
rhythmic back-and-forth rocking of water in ocean basins. We will Contrary to what you might think, the moon does not re-
explore the idealized situation of the equilibrium theory before volve around the center of Earth. Rather, the Earth–moon system
moving to the real-world dynamic view. revolves once a month (27.3 days) around the system’s center
of mass. Because Earth’s mass is 81 times that of the moon, this
common center of mass is located not in space but 1,650 kilo-
CONCEPT CHECK meters (1,023 miles) inside Earth. This center of mass is shown
Before going on to the next section, check your understanding of in Figure 11.3.
some of the important ideas presented so far:
The moon’s gravity attracts the ocean surface toward the
How is a forced wave different from a free wave? moon. Earth’s motion around the center of mass of the Earth–
What celestial bodies are most important in determining tides? moon system throws up a bulge on the opposite side of Earth.
Two tidal bulges result (Figure 11.4).
Let’s look more closely at the two bulges in the last image
11.2 Tides Are Forced Waves Formed in Figure 11.4. In Figure 11.5, four places on Earth’s surface are
marked with numbers 1 through 4 . Each place has three
by Gravity and Inertia arrows drawn to represent forces: the outward- inging force of
The equilibrium theory of tides explains many characteristics inertia is shown in blue, and the inward-pulling force of grav-
of ocean tides by examining the balance and effects of the forces ity is shown in brown. Combined, they are called tractive forces.
that allow a planet to stay in a stable orbit around the sun, or Note that the inward pull of gravity and the outward-moving
the moon to orbit Earth. The equilibrium theory assumes that tendency of inertia don’t always act in exactly the same balanced
the sea oor does not in uence the tides and that the ocean con- way on each particle of Earth and moon. The net strength and

Motion due to inertia

Combined
effect
Motion due
to gravity
© Cengage Learning

a If the planet is not moving, gravity will pull b If the planet is moving, the inertia of the c In a stable orbit, gravity and inertia com-
it into the sun. planet will keep it moving in a straight bine to cause the planet to travel in a xed
line. path around the sun.
Figure 11.2 A planet orbits the sun in balance between gravity and inertia.

TIDES 317
 1,650 km Earth’s mass is 81 times
(1,023 mi) the mass of the moon

Moon

(81/82) r

© Cengage Learning
(1/82) r Average Earth–moon distance (r)

Figure 11.3 The moon does not revolve around the center of Earth. Earth and moon together—the Earth–
moon system—revolve around a common center of mass about 1,650 kilometers (1,023 miles) beneath Earth’s
surface.

Center
of mass

Moon Moon Moon

© Cengage Learning
Moon attracts ocean Earth’s motion creates opposing bulge Combined result

Figure 11.4 The moon’s gravity attracts the ocean toward it. The motion of Earth around the center of mass
of the Earth–moon system throws up a bulge on the side of Earth opposite the moon. The combination of the
two effects creates two tidal bulges.

direction that result when the two forces are combined are
shown as red arrows.
Points 1 and 2 are closer to the moon, so gravitational
attraction at those points slightly exceeds the outward-moving
tendency of inertia. Water there tends to be attracted toward the
moon so is pulled along the ocean surface toward a spot beneath
the moon. At points 3 and 4 , slightly farther from the moon,
inertia exceeds gravitational attraction. Water at those points
tends to be ung away from the moon so moves along the ocean
surface toward a spot opposite the moon. Together, the tractive
forces cause the two small bulges in the ocean, one in the direc-
tion of the moon, the other in the opposite direction.
Note that there is no point on Earth’s surface where the
force of the moon’s gravity exactly equals the outward-moving
tendency of inertia. Only at point CE—the center of Earth—are
the inward pull of gravity and the outward-moving tendency

Figure 11.5 The actions of gravity

Inertia (sometimes incorrectly called centrifugal “force”): and inertia on particles at ve differ-
The same for all particles in and on Earth.
ent locations on Earth. At points 1
Bulge Gravitational attraction: Decreases as the square
and 2 , the gravitational attraction
opposite of the distance from the moon.
of the moon slightly exceeds the
moon 4 1
outward-moving tendency of inertia;
the imbalance of forces causes
water to move along Earth’s surface,
CE converging at a point toward the
Moon
moon. At points 3 and 4 , inertia
Forces are Bulge toward moon
exceeds gravitational force, so water
balanced here
moves along Earth’s surface to con-
verge at a point opposite the moon.
3 2
© Cengage Learning

Tractive forces: Net force when effects of inertia and Forces are balanced only at the center
gravitational attraction are combined. They create of Earth (point CE).
two bulges in the ocean: one in the direction of the
moon, the other opposite.

The two forces that can move the ocean—inertia and gravitational attraction—are precisely equal in
strength but opposite in direction, and thus balanced, only at the center of Earth (point CE).

318 C H AP T ER 1 1
 Water bulge resulting from Figure 11.6 The formation of tidal bulges at points toward
inertia (sometimes incorrectly and away from the moon. (This and the similar diagrams that
called centrifugal “force”)
follow are not drawn to scale.)
North Pole
THINKING BEYOND THE FIGURE
Why should there be a tidal bulge on the side of Earth away
from the moon?
© Cengage Learning

Moon

Water bulge resulting

from gravitational
attraction

South Pole

1226 (about noon), Figure 11.7 How Earth’s rotation beneath the tidal
Island bulges produces high and low tides.
exposed

1838 0613
(6:38 p.m.) (6:13 a.m.) a As Earth turns eastward, places on
Island Island
submerged submerged its surface move into and out of tidal
bulges. The tidal cycle is 24 hours
© Cengage Learning

North 50 minutes long because the moon

Moon rises 50 minutes later each day (see
Pole
Figure 10.8).

Inertia Earth turns Gravity

bulge eastward bulge
High tide

0000 (midnight),
Average
Island high
sea level
and dry

Low tide

0000 0613 1226 1838

Time of day
b A graph of the tides at the island in a .

of inertia exactly equal and opposite. The solid Earth cannot
move much in response to these forces, but the uid atmosphere
and ocean can. We don’t notice the changes in the height of the
atmosphere, but changes in water level are visible to coastal ob-
servers. In Figure 11.6, tractive forces pull water toward a point
beneath the moon and to a point opposite the moon.
How do these bulges cause the rhythmic rise and fall of the
tides? In the idealized equilibrium model we are discussing, the
bulges tend to stay aligned with the moon as Earth spins around
its axis. Figure 11.7 shows the situation in Figure 11.6 as it would
look from above the North Pole. As Earth turns eastward, an
island on the equator is seen to move in and out of these bulges
through one rotation (1 day). The bulges are the crests of the
planet-sized waves that cause high tides. Low tides correspond
to the troughs, the area between bulges. Starting at 0000 (mid-
night), we see the island in shallow water at low tide. Around
6 hours later, at 0613 (6:13 a.m.), the island is submerged in
the lunar bulge at high tide. At 1226 (about noon), the island is
within the tide-wave trough at low tide. At 1838 (6:38 p.m.) the
island is again submerged, this time in the opposite crest caused
by inertia. About an hour after midnight (0050) on the next day,
the island is back in shallow water where it began.
The wave crests and troughs that cause high and low tides
are actually very small: a 2-meter (7-foot) rise or fall in sea level
TIDES 319
 The moon moves this . . . and this much
much in 8 hours . . . in 24 hours

Moon

Earth

North North North North North

Tidal

© Cengage Learning
× × × × ×
bulges
Pole Pole Pole Pole Pole

Noon 8:00 . . 4:00 . . Noon 12:50 . .

on Day 2
8 hours 8 hours 8 hours 50 min
Start 1 Solar 1 Lunar
day day

Figure 11.8 A lunar day is longer than a solar day. A lunar day is the time that elapses between the time the
moon is highest in the sky and the next time it is highest in the sky. In a 24-hour solar day, the moon moves
eastward about 12.2°. Earth must rotate another 12.2°—50 minutes—to again place the moon at the highest
position overhead. A lunar day is therefore 24 hours 50 minutes long. Because Earth must turn an additional
50 minutes for the same tidal alignment, lunar tides usually arrive 50 minutes later each day.

is insigni cant in comparison to the ocean’s great size. Earth
rotates beneath the bulges (tide wave crests) at about 1,600 kilo-
meters (1,000 miles) per hour at the equator. The bulges appear
to move across the ocean surface at this speed in an attempt to
keep up with the moon. Theoretically, the wavelength of these
tide waves is as long as 20,000 kilometers (12,500 miles)! The
bulges tend to stay aligned with the moon as Earth spins around
its axis. The key to understanding the equilibrium theory of tides is to
see Earth turning beneath these bulges.
There are complications, of course. For example, lunar
tides, tides caused by gravitational and inertial interaction of the
moon and Earth, complete their cycle in a tidal day (also called a
lunar day). A complete tidal day is 24 hours 50 minutes long, be-
cause the moon, which exerts the greatest tidal in uence, moves
through about 1⁄27 of its orbit in a day. A point on Earth needs to
move a bit more to be underneath it the next day, and this takes
about 50 minutes (Figure 11.8). Thus, the highest tide also arrives
50 minutes later each day.
Another complication arises from the fact that the moon does
not stay right over the equator; each month, it moves from a posi-
tion as high as 281⁄2° above Earth’s equator to 281⁄2 below.1 When
the moon is above the equator, the bulges are offset accordingly
(Figure 11.9). When the moon is 281⁄2° north of the equator, an
island north of the equator will pass through the bulge on one
side of Earth but miss the bulge on the other side. During 1 day,
the island passes through a very high tide, a low tide, a lower high
tide, and another low tide. This is shown in Figure 11.10.

N
The Sun Also Generates Tractive Forces
The sun’s gravity also attracts particles on Earth. Remember
Moon
that closeness counts for much in determining the strength
of gravitational attraction. As we saw earlier, the sun is about
27 million times as massive as the moon but about 387 times as
far from Earth as the moon, so the sun’s in uence on the tides is
only 46% that of the moon’s. The sun’s tractive forces develop in
© Cengage Learning

S
Figure 11.9 Tidal bulges follow the moon. When the moon’s position
is north of the equator, the gravitational bulge toward the moon is also
located north of the equator, and the opposite inertial bulge is below
the equator. (Compare with Figure 11.6.)
the same way as the moon’s, and the smaller solar bulges tend to
follow the sun through the day. These are the solar tides, caused
by the gravitational and inertial interaction of the sun and Earth.
Like the moon, the sun also appears to move above and
below the equator (231⁄2° north to 231⁄2° south, as you may re-
call from Chapter 8), so the position of the solar bulges varies
like that of the lunar bulges. Earth revolves around the sun only
once a year, however, so the position of the solar bulges above or
below the equator changes much more slowly than the position
of the lunar bulges. (Figure 8.8, used to explain the cause of the
seasons, shows this well.)
1
If Earth, moon, and sun were all moving in the same plane, lunar and solar
eclipses would happen every 2 weeks.

320 C H AP T ER 1 1
 But if the moon, Earth, and sun form a right angle (as shown in
Island partly North Island submerged Moon Figure 11.11b), the solar tide will tend to diminish the lunar tide.
submerged Pole (higher high tide)
(lower high Because the moon’s contribution is more than twice that of the
tide) sun, the solar tide will not completely cancel the lunar tide.
The large tides caused by the linear alignment of the sun,
Island
exposed
Earth, and moon are called spring tides (springen, “to move
(low tide) quickly”). During spring tides, high tides are very high and low
tides very low. These tides occur at 2-week intervals correspond-
ing to the new and full moons. (Please note that spring tides

© Cengage Learning
Earth turns eastward
Equator
South
Pole
Figure 11.10 How the changing position of the moon relative to the
Earth’s equator produces higher and lower high tides. Sometimes the
moon is below the equator; sometimes it is above.
THINKING BEYOND THE FIGURE
Why are there high high tides and low high tides—that is, why are
high tides sometimes very high, and not so high at other times?
Sun and Moon In uence the Tides Together
The ocean responds simultaneously to inertia and to the gravita-
tional force of both the sun and moon. If Earth, moon, and sun
are all in a line (as shown in Figure 11.11a), the lunar and solar tides
will be additive, resulting in higher high tides and lower low tides.
don’t happen only in the spring of the year.) Neap tides (næpa,
“hardly disturbed”) occur when the moon, Earth, and sun form
a right angle. During neap tides, high tides are not very high and
low tides not very low. Neap tides also occur at 2-week intervals,
with the neap tide arriving a week after the spring tide. Figure
11.12 plots tides at two coastal sites through spring and neap
cycles.
Because their orbits are ellipses, not perfect circles, the
moon and the sun are closer to Earth at some times than at
others. The difference between apogee (the moon’s greatest
distance from Earth) and perigee (its closest approach) is
30,600 kilometers (19,015 miles). Because the tidal force is in-
versely proportional to the cube of the distance between the
bodies, the closer moon raises a noticeably higher tidal crest.
The difference between aphelion (Earth’s greatest distance
from the sun) and perihelion (its closest approach) is 3.7 mil-
lion kilometers (2.3 million miles). If the moon and sun are
over nearly the same latitude, and if Earth is also close to the
sun, extreme spring tides will result. Interestingly, spring tides
will have greater ranges in the Northern Hemisphere winter
than in the Northern Hemisphere summer because Earth is
closest to the sun during the northern winter.
Tides caused by inertia and the gravitational force of the
sun and moon are called astronomical tides. As explained in

Lunar tide Solar tide

a At the new and full moons,
the solar and lunar tides
reinforce each other, making
Sun spring tides, the highest high
Full New and lowest low tides.
moon moon

Spring tides Earth

turns

First-quarter moon

Lunar tide
b At the rst- and third-
Solar tide
quarter moons, the sun,
Earth Earth, and moon form a
turns Sun right angle, creating neap
© Cengage Learning

tides, the lowest high and

the highest low tides.

Figure 11.11 Relative positions

Third-quarter moon of the sun, moon, and Earth
Neap tides during spring and neap tides.

TIDES 321
 New moon First quarter Full moon

Spring Neap Spring

(m)

(ft)

2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
6
4 MHW
1
2
0 0 MLW

a Tidal Data: New York

Spring Neap Spring

(m)

(ft)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
3 10
8
MHW
2 6
4
1
MLW
2

© Cengage Learning
0 0
b Tidal Data: Port Adelaide, Australia MHW = mean high water
MLW = mean low water

Figure 11.12 Tidal records for a typical month at a New York and b Port Adelaide, Australia. Note the
relationship of spring and neap tides to the phases of the moon.

the next section, storms can affect tide height—a phenomenon
known as a meteorological tide.
CONCEPT CHECK
Before going on to the next section, check your understanding of
some of the important ideas presented so far:
In general terms, how is the pull of gravity between two bodies
related to their distance?
What is a tractive force? How is it generated?
What body generates the strongest tractive forces?
What is a spring tide? A neap tide?
11.3 The Dynamic Theory of Tides
Adds Fluid Motion Dynamics
to the Equilibrium Theory
Newton knew his explanation was incomplete. For one thing, the
maximum theoretical range of a lunar tidal bulge is only 55 centi-
meters (about 22 inches) and of a solar tide, only 24 centimeters
(about 10 inches), both considerably smaller than the 2-me-
ter (7-foot) average tidal range we observe in the world ocean.
The reason is that the ocean surface never comes completely to
the equilibrium position at any instant. The moon and the sun
change their positions so rapidly that the water cannot keep up.
The dynamic theory of tides, rst proposed in 1775 by
Laplace, added a fundamental understanding of the problems of
322 C H AP T ER 1 1
uid motion to Newton’s breakthrough in celestial mechanics.
The dynamic theory explains the differences between predictions
based on Newton’s model and the observed behaviors of tides.
Remember that tides are a form of wave. The crests of
these waves—the tidal bulges—are separated by a distance of
half of Earth’s circumference (see again Figure 11.7). In the
equilibrium model, the crests would remain stationary, point-
ing steadily toward (or away from) the moon (or sun) as Earth
turned beneath them. They would appear to move across the
idealized water-covered Earth at a speed of about 1,600 kilome-
ters (1,000 miles) per hour. But how deep would the ocean have
to be to allow these waves to move freely? For a tidal crest to
move at 1,600 kilometers per hour, the ocean would have to be
22 kilometers (13.7 miles) deep. As you may recall, the average
depth of the ocean is only 3.8 kilometers (2.4 miles). So, tidal
crests (tidal bulges) move as forced waves, their velocity deter-
mined by ocean depth.
Tidal Patterns Center on Amphidromic Points
This behavior of tides as shallow-water waves is only one varia-
tion from the ideal that the dynamic theory explains. The conti-
nents also get in the way. As Earth turns, landmasses obstruct the
tidal crests, diverting, slowing, and otherwise complicating their
movements. This interference produces different patterns in the
arrival of tidal crests at different places. Imagine, for example, a
continent directly facing the moon. There would be no oceanic
bulge, and the shores of the continent would experience high
tide. A few hours later the moon would be over the ocean. When
the continent was not aligned with the moon, but the ocean was,
the tidal bulge would reform and the continent’s edges would
experience low tide.
The shape of the basin itself has a strong in uence on the
patterns and heights of tides. As we have seen, water in large
basins can rock rhythmically back and forth in seiches. Though
they are small, tidal crests can stimulate this resonant oscilla-
tion, and the con guration of coasts around a basin can alter its
rhythm.
For these and other reasons, some coastlines experience
semidiurnal (twice daily) tides: two high tides and two low
tides of nearly equal level each lunar day. Others have diurnal
(daily) tides: one high and one low. The tidal pattern is called
mixed (or semidiurnal mixed) if successive high tides or low
tides are of signi cantly different heights throughout the cycle.
This pattern is caused by blending diurnal and semidiurnal tides.
Figure 11.13 shows an example of each tidal pattern. The
Paci c coast of the United States has a mixed tidal pattern: often
a higher high tide, followed by a lower low tide, a lower high tide,
and a higher low tide each lunar day. (That’s not as confusing as
it seems—see Figure 11.13a.) The natural tendency of water in
an enclosed ocean basin to rock at a speci c frequency modi es
the pattern in the Gulf of Mexico, so Mobile sees one crest per
lunar day, a diurnal pattern (see Figure 11.13b). At Cape Cod,
two tidal crests arrive per lunar day, a semidiurnal pattern (see
Figure 11.13c). The Paci c Ocean has a unique pattern of diur-
nal, semidiurnal, and mixed tides. As Figure 11.13d shows, it has
the most complex of all tidal patterns. The east coast of Austra-
lia, all of New Zealand, and much of the west coasts of Central
and South America have a semidiurnal tidal pattern. The Aleu-
tians have diurnal tides. The Paci c coasts of North America
and some of South America have mixed tides. Why the differences?
Remember the surface of Lake Geneva in our discussion
of seiches? The water level at the center of the lake remains at
the same height while water at the ends rises and falls (see again
Figure 10.28). The long axis of the lake stretches east and west.
Because of the Coriolis effect, water moving east at the center of
the lake is de ected slightly to the right (to the south). If the lake

Semidiurnal tides
Diurnal tides
Mixed tides

Mixed tide, Los Angeles Diurnal tide, Mobile, Alabama Semidiurnal tide, Cape Cod
(m)
(ft)

14 Higher high tide 4

10 Lower high tide High tide 3
6 High tide
2
4 1
0 0
Lower Higher Low
–4 –1
© Cengage Learning

low tide low tide tide

Low tide

0 6 12 18 24 30 36 42 48 0 6 12 18 24 30 36 42 48 0 6 12 18 24 30 36 42 48
a Time (hr) b Time (hr) c Time (hr)

Figure 11.13 Tide curves for the three common types of tides. a A mixed tide pattern at Los Angeles, Cali-
fornia. b A diurnal tide pattern at Mobile, Alabama. c A semidiurnal tide pattern at Cape Cod, Massachu-
setts. d The worldwide geographical distribution of the three tidal patterns. Most of the world’s ocean coasts
have semidiurnal tides.

TIDES 323