{"id":36908,"date":"2022-09-22T10:14:41","date_gmt":"2022-09-22T10:14:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/?p=112199"},"modified":"2022-09-22T10:27:10","modified_gmt":"2022-09-22T10:27:10","slug":"what-causes-the-tides","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/what-causes-the-tides\/","title":{"rendered":"What causes the tides?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Lewis Dartnell\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 22 September 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

Few things are more certain than the cyclical nature of the tidal system, as observed along coastlines around the world.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a wonderful thing to sit and watch over time, as the waves lapping on a beach gradually edge closer in towards land or else further out to sea.<\/p>\n

But what causes high and low tides, and does it really have anything to do with the Moon, or even the Sun?<\/p>\n

\"""\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Diagram showing the gravitational force of the Moon at different points on Earth.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Let\u2019s talk gravity<\/a>, and more specifically, the gravitational interactions between planet Earth and our Moon.<\/span><\/p>\n

T<\/span>he gravitational pull of the Moon hauls up Earth\u2019s oceans into two bulges on opposite sides of the planet.<\/p>\n

As Earth rotates beneath these twin bulges, sea levels along the coastlines rise and fall, creating the tides.<\/p>\n

Much of the world\u2019s shores, including around the UK, experience two cycles of high and low tides roughly equal in magnitude every day<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"""\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Credit: Jeff Morgan \/ Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

The Sun\u2019s gravity also has an effect on the ocean\u2019s tides, and roughly twice a month (one lunar orbit), when both the Moon and Sun are in line with Earth, their gravitational effects combine to create a much larger range between high and low water, known as the spring tide.<\/p>\n

Conversely, when the Moon and Sun are at 90\u00b0 to each other the tides are weaker: what\u2019s called a neap tide.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared in the October 2022 issue of <\/strong><\/em>BBC Sky at Night Magazine<\/strong>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n

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By Lewis Dartnell Published: Thursday, 22 September 2022 at 12:00 am Few things are more certain than the cyclical nature of the tidal system, as observed along coastlines around the world. It\u2019s a wonderful thing to sit and watch over time, as the waves lapping on a beach gradually edge closer in towards land or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":36909,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/09\/what-causes-the-tides.jpg",2121,1414,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/09\/what-causes-the-tides-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/09\/what-causes-the-tides-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/09\/what-causes-the-tides-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/09\/what-causes-the-tides-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/09\/what-causes-the-tides-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/09\/what-causes-the-tides-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Lewis Dartnell Published: Thursday, 22 September 2022 at 12:00 am Few things are more certain than the cyclical nature of the tidal system, as observed along coastlines around the world. It\u2019s a wonderful thing to sit and watch over time, as the waves lapping on a beach gradually edge closer in towards land or…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/36908"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}