AKICOLJ/DW - tides!
Oct. 22nd, 2009 06:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
desperanceOkay, people. Bear with me, for I am remarkably stupid.
Tides happen - twice a day - as a consequence of the Earth's rotation and the moon's tug, mostly. Okay.
Each tide has a period, from height to height, of approx twelve and a half hours, viz the two-tide cycle is actually an hour lag of twice a day.
So: is this inevitable, inherent in the physics? If our day were longer, would the tidal period also be longer, and an hour or so longer than the day? Or would it be entirely possible, on a different planet with a different moon of different size and distance, to have a tidal period that equated with the day, so that on the equator it would - eg - always be low tide at dawn and at sunset...?
Tides happen - twice a day - as a consequence of the Earth's rotation and the moon's tug, mostly. Okay.
Each tide has a period, from height to height, of approx twelve and a half hours, viz the two-tide cycle is actually an hour lag of twice a day.
So: is this inevitable, inherent in the physics? If our day were longer, would the tidal period also be longer, and an hour or so longer than the day? Or would it be entirely possible, on a different planet with a different moon of different size and distance, to have a tidal period that equated with the day, so that on the equator it would - eg - always be low tide at dawn and at sunset...?