Sailor's aid or sailor's nightmare - the tides explained

11:15 PM Fri 17 Sep 2010 GMT

'Moon and tide - forever interlinked' .

As sailors, we all know that tides come twice a day, vary according to the moon, and, depending on where you are sailing are either unimportant, reasonably important, or critically important to a successful completion of your voyage. But why the moon? and if the moon only circles the earth once a day, why are there two tides? Here, Grant Headifen of Nauticed, explains: It's not surprising if you don't exactly understand how tides work - Tides took a lot of figuring out by some very smart people over the ages - including Galileo - but here's the story: Gravitational ...

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by Grant Headifen