Abstract
MR. MCLENNAN's words “and consequently the tides” are not in accordance with dynamics and are not implied in the passage he quotes from my previous note. If the earth were all water the direct tide-generating forces within two miles of its surface would be the same as in an ocean of depth only two miles. These tidal forces are usually represented by reference to the “equilibrium tide,” that is, by stating what the outer surface of the oceans would be if the water had lost its inertia without losing its gravitational properties. This outer surface would be the same in the two cases mentioned. The necessary continual adjustment of water, however, would be quite different in the two cases; in the first case the water within two miles of the surface would be largely raised and lowered by that beneath, while in the second case the water would move mainly in a horizontal direction. But owing to the actual inertia of the water the outer surface of the ocean would be entirely different in the two cases, so that the accepted theory does not ignore the depth of the ocean as a factor determining the height of the tides.
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The Tides. Nature 112, 726 (1923). https://doi.org/10.1038/112726b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/112726b0
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