How come
nobody noticed this before?
People have continued to live happily with the standard
theory of tides because, quite simply, the calculations to predict tides work very well.
Fishermen, sailors, surfers and the many people who want to know the tide heights from
time to time are perfectly satisfied with the existing predictions. If the formula works,
most people think, the theory must also be spot on. So why, if the standard theory of
tides is wrong, does the formula to predict tide heights work so well?
Tide tables accurately predict the tide level in any
particular location years in advance. These are based on a formula that gives the position
of the moon and the sun relative to any given set of coordinates on Earth at any given
time. This part can be done with perfect accuracy, and it isn't too complex. But by itself
it is not very useful. To be accurate, the formula must be corrected for effects on the
tides from a number of factors. These include:
The shape of the coast
The shape of the depth contours off shore
Local water currents
Various other conditions such as changes in salinity
and water flow from river estuaries.
Fudge Factors
The upshot of all this is that the tidal formula
accurately predicts the relationships of Earth, Sun and Moon and then calibrates the
results to particular localities using fudge factors based on accurate measurements of
tidal conditions over many years. Once you know the "offset" for any given
locality, all you really need to do is add or subtract this from where the tide should be
given the position of the sun and the moon.
It does not matter if your expected tide position is
six hours out of whack because this is simply tacked on to the local fudge factor.
Gobbledygook Tidal Notions
The standard theory of ocean tides has nothing to do with the fact that the tides can be
predicted with great accuracy using the existing formula.
For starters, the theory of tides was devised before we
realized the planet was itself a big liquid sphere and before we understood much about how
gravity works. And even before we knew anything about the deep ocean.
The original idea was simple.
Solid Earth, liquid sea. Sea lifts up when moon passes over, with lots of rushing tidal
currents in and out of coastal passes.
To get around the obvious complication that
the tide happens to be low when the moon is overhead in many of the island areas of the world, the scientists of the day developed
an elaborate idea of a tidal wave that is propagated around the planet. Then they imagined
there must be some kind of frictional force between this wave and the ocean floor in deep
water. They needed that to slow down the tidal wave. One complex theory has it that the
gravitational effect of the moon actually pushes the sea due to friction. Any residual
time deficit, after these wavy, frictional deviations, was written off to local factors
influencing the tidal wave.
But there isn't any tidal wave and the bulging of the
planet does not propagate like an ocean wave and there is no friction of any sort between
the sea floor and ocean tides or between gravity and the ocean.
Gravity is now.
Gravity, as most of us discovered in our infancy when
we first tried walking, does not have a time lag. Except in cartoons and in tidal
oceanography. Gravity happens right now, and it happens to the whole planet all at the
same time. The bulge created by the moon is a collective change in molecular motion
created by the gravitational effect of the sun and the moon. The greatest change in
molecular motion is on the part of the planet nearest to the sun and moon - the surface.
But the gravity effect of the moon and the sun distort the planet everywhere, right to the
core and on to the opposite side of the planet.
As the planet rotates under the moon, the molecular
effect remains at its maximum directly under the moon. But this is not a wave propagating
and has none of the characteristics of one. If the moon vanished instantly, the effect
would vanish in the very short time it would take the planet to assume a more uniform,
unbulged, shape. Waves propagate from one area to another, gravity bulges
don't. The gravity bulge from the moon remains perfectly stationary under the moon. The
gravity bulge from the sun stays perfectly stationary under the sun.
Waves also generate wave trains with specific features
of multiple wave propagation. The tidal effect is a singular egging of the planet.
Further, there is no friction of water movement over
the deep sea because the tidal effect does not move water around the planet every day. It
does not directly move water anywhere. In the open sea, when the moon passes over, the
water stays where it is, moving in whatever direction it happened to be moving.
The only
effect of the moon is that the water molecules alter their motion slightly, along with all
the rest of the molecules of the planet, so the whole mass elevates a miniscule amount
(relative to the diameter of the planet).
The massive movement of water near ocean passes or from
estuaries and lagoons is only indirectly caused by the gravitational effect. It is not a
tidal wave rushing in and out of the harbor. The harbor is lifting up and descending and
the water is, quite naturally, sloshing in and out as this happens.
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