I. ON THE NATURE OF TIDES (cont.)

3. General Explanation of the Cause of Tides

Tide Generating Process

The moon attracts every particle of the earth and ocean, and by the law of gravitation the force acting on any particle is directed towards the moon’s centre, and is jointly proportional to the masses of the particle and of the moon, and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the particle and the moon’s centre. If we imagine the earth and ocean subdivided into a number of small portions or particles of equal mass, then the average, both as to direction and intensity, of the forces acting on these particles is equal to the force acting on that particle which is at the earth’s centre. For there is symmetry about the line joining the centres of the two bodies, and, if we divide the earth into two portions by an ideal spherical surface passing through the earth’s centre and having its centre at the moon, the portion remote from the moon is a little larger than the portion towards the moon, but the nearer portion is under the action of forces which are a little stronger than those acting on the further portion, and the resultant of the weaker forces on the larger portion is exactly equal to the resultant of the stronger forces on the smaller. If every particle of the earth and ocean were being urged by equal and parallel forces, there would be no cause for relative motion between the ocean and the earth. Hence it is the departure of the force acting on any particle from the average which constitutes the tide-generating force. Now it is obvious that on the side of the earth towards the moon the departure from the average is a small force directed towards the moon; and on the side of the earth away from the moon the departure is a small force directed away from the moon. Also these two departures are very nearly equal to one another, that on the near side being so little greater than that on the other that we may neglect the excess. All round the sides of the earth along a great circle perpendicular to the line joining the moon and earth, the departure is a force directed inwards towards the earth’s centre. Thus we see that the tidal forces tend to pull the water towards and away from the moon, and to depress the water at right angles to that direction. If we could neglect the rotations of the bodies, and could consider the system as at rest, we should find that the water was in equilibrium when elongated into a prolate ellipsoid with its long axis directed towards and away from the moon.

Theory of Equatorial Canal on Earth

But it must not be assumed that this would be the case when there is motion. For, suppose that the ocean consisted of a canal round the equator, and that an earthquake or any other cause were to generate a great wave in the canal, this wave would travel along it with a velocity dependent on the depth. If the canal were about 13 miles deep, the velocity of the wave would be about 1000 miles an hour, and with depth about equal to the depth of our seas the velocity of the wave would be about half as great. We may conceive the moon’s tide-generating force as making a wave in the canal and continually outstripping the wave it generates, for the moon travels along the equator at the rate of about 1000 miles an hour, and the sea is less than 13 miles deep. The resultant oscillation of the ocean must therefore be the summation of a series of partial waves generated at each instant by the moon and always falling behind her, and the aggregate wave, being the same at each instant, must travel 1000 miles an hour so as to keep up with the moon.

Now it is a general law of frictionless oscillation that, if a slowly varying periodic force acts on a system which would oscillate quickly if left to itself, the maximum excursion on one side of the equilibrium position occurs simultaneously with the maximum force in the direction of the excursion; but, if a quickly varying periodic force acts on a system which would oscillate slowly if left to itself, the maximum excursion on one side of the equilibrium position occurs simultaneously with the maximum force in the direction opposite to that of the excursion. An example of the first is a ball hanging by a short string, which we push slowly to and fro; the ball will never quit contact with the hand, and will agree with its excursions. If, however, the ball is hanging by a long string we can play at battledore and shuttlecock with it, and it always meets our blows. The latter is the analogue of the tides, for a free wave in our shallow canal goes slowly, whilst the moon’s tide-generating action goes quickly.

Tides Inverted

Hence, when the system is left to settle into steady oscillation, it is low water under and opposite to the moon, whilst the forces are such as to make it high water at those times.





If we consider the moon as revolving round the earth, the water assumes nearly the shape of an oblate spheroid with the minor axis pointed to the moon. The rotation of the earth in the actual case introduces a complexity which it is not easy to unravel by general reasoning. We can see, however, that if water moves from a lower to a higher latitude it arrives at the higher latitude with more velocity from west to east than is appropriate to its latitude, and it will move accordingly on the earth’s surface. Following out this conception, we see that an oscillation of the water to and fro between south and north must be accompanied by an eddy. Laplace’s solution of the difficult problem involved in working out this idea will be given below.

The conclusion at which we have arrived about the tides of an equatorial canal is probably more nearly true of the tides of a globe partially covered with land than if we were to suppose the ocean at each moment to assume the prolate figure of equilibrium. In fact, observation shows that it is more nearly low water than high water when the moon is on the meridian. If we consider how the oscillation of the water would appear to an observer carried round with the earth, we see that he will have low water twice in the lunar day, somewhere about the time when the moon is on the meridian, either above or below the horizon, and high water half way between the low waters.

Sun's Influence

If the sun be now introduced, we have another similar tide of about half the height, and this depends on solar time, giving low water somewhere about noon and midnight. The superposition of the two, modified by friction and by the interference of land, gives the actually observed aggregate tide, and it is clear that about new and full moon we must have spring tides and at quarter moons neap tides, and that (the sum of the lunar and solar tide-generating forces being about three times their difference) the range of spring tide will be about three times that of neap tide.

Diurnal Tides

So far we have supposed the luminaries to move on the equator; now let us consider the case where the moon is not on the equator. It is clear in this case that at any place the moon’s zenith distance at the upper transit is different from her nadir distance at the lower transit. But the tide-generating force is greater the smaller the zenith or nadir distance, and therefore the forces are different at successive transits. This was not the case when the moon was deemed to move on the equator. Thus there is a tendency for two successive lunar tides to be of unequal heights, and the resulting inequality of height is called a "diurnal tide." This tendency vanishes when the moon is on the equator; and, as this occurs each fortnight, the lunar diurnal tide is evanescent once a fortnight. Similarly in summer and winter the successive solar tides are generally of unequal height, whilst in spring and autumn this difference is inconspicuous.

Evanescent in Ocean of Uniform Depth

One of the most remarkable conclusions of Laplace’s theory of the tides, on a globe covered with ocean to a uniform depth, is that the diurnal tide is everywhere non-existent. But this hypothesis differs much from the reality, and in fact at some ports the diurnal tide is so large that during two portions of each lunation there is only one great high water and one great low water in each twenty-four hours, whilst in other parts of the lunation the usual semi-diurnal tide is observed.






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