Comment on Sea Level
marcos@lemmy.world 22 hours agoSome of the first mechanical calculators were created to predict tides (~3 centuries ago), because they are a really complex thing that the popular explanations completely paper over and pretend it’s simply the water keeping pace with the Moon.
MotoAsh@piefed.social 21 hours ago
It’s shown like that because the water is trying to do that, to anthropomorphise it. Though of course that’s not what the water does everywhere because fluid dynamics get pretty nuts when there’s a ton of land in the way.
MotoAsh@piefed.social 16 hours ago
To expand on the idea, even weather effects the level of the tides rather significantly… For a clear example, look at hurricanes. They can approach double digits in feet of storm swell if they’re severe enough.