Re: [Paddlewise] The Tide/Moon Debate

My hat's off to you Dave, for trying to succinctly explain tides, even
though I got a little confused by the analogy of a Karo-covered person
floating in space with visco-elastic forces restoring the head bulge.   

To explain tides in the simplest terms, I suppose that one could say tides
are the result of the net sum of attractive and centrifugal forces acting
on the Earth, influenced by the positions and orbits of the Moon around the
Earth and the Earth around the Sun, land masses impeding the free flow of
water across the surface of the Earth, and weather patterns on the surface
of the Earth.  (Whew!)

Having said that, 

http://www1.pactide.noaa.gov/tide-explanation.htm 

does a wonderful job explaining tides, complete with diagrams (and also
uses one of my favorite words - syzygy - in the explanation).

Regards, and Happy Holidays!
Erik
(at the southern end of Lake Michigan)


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