Spring tides and neap tides results from the combined effect of the sun and the moon. Draw a diagram outlining how they correspond to the moon phases and the resulting outcome on the magnitude of the high and low tide extremes.
Spring tides and neap tides results from the combined effect of the sun and the moon. Draw a diagram outlining how they correspond to the moon phases and the resulting outcome on the magnitude of the high and low tide extremes.
A force that is exerted on the earth by the moon is known as the gravitational force. Although there is a strong gravitational attraction on the earth's ocean, it also experiences a small force of gravitational attraction from the moon. The water closest to the moon experiences the largest gravitational attraction, which creates a bulge of water on that side of the earth, known as a tidal bulge. The bulge on the opposite side of the earth facing away from the moon can be thought of as the earth's result being pulled away from that water mass by the moon's gravitational force.
- The moon's rotation around the earth occurs in the same plane, like the earth's orbit around the sun. A tide is also created by the sun, but the tide's strength is half to that of the moon despite its greater mass as the sun is far from the earth.
- The gravitational effects of the sun and moon are added when they occur inline with the earth. These two bodies' gravitational effects are added together to increase the tidal bulge's height. This position is known as syzygy.
- When the moon is at 90 degrees to the line joining the sun and the earth (the quadratic alignment), the gravitational effects of the two on the water tend to cancel each other. The moon occurs twice in line and twice perpendicular during the four weeks of its orbit, creating a neap-spring tidal cycle. The spring tides occur each month when all three bodies, the moon, the sun, and the earth. Neap tides occur a week after the spring tides. These occur when the moon and sun tend to cancel each other effects, and the tidal effect is the smallest.
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