Re: fun with tides

[Michael Edmiston <edmiston@BLUFFTON.EDU>]

The equator/tide question John found is amazing.  Someone wasn't
thinking .

Tide prediction is an amazing science.  It's done with harmonic
analysis.  If you Google < tides + "harmonic analysis" > you will get a
bunch of sites to examine.  Here is one that is a good introduction...

http://www.math.sunysb.edu/~tony/tides/harmonic.html

Another site with a bunch of info is the part of the NOAA site that
deals with ocean phenomena prediction.  Here is a more complete
introduction than the one above...

http://www.co-ops.nos.noaa.gov/restles1.html

And yet another...

http://co-ops.nos.noaa.gov/harmonic.html

The harmonic analysis of tides dates back to Lord Kelvin.  Before
computers, mechanical harmonic analysis machines were used for tide
prediction.  These were mechanical marvels.  Here is a picture of one...

http://co-ops.nos.noaa.gov/predmach.html

Currently we use 37 coefficients for the harmonic analysis.  You can get
the coefficients for various USA locations here...

http://co-ops.nos.noaa.gov/data_retrieve.shtml?input_code=100201001har

Go here for actual tidal prediction at various locations using the
coefficents described at the site above...

http://www.co-ops.nos.noaa.gov/tide_pred.html



Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
Professor of Physics and Chemistry
Bluffton University
Bluffton, OH 45817
(419)-358-3270
edmiston@bluffton.edu