explorers education programme: the tides & me

Explorers Education Programme: www.explorers.ie

The tides & me


1. Orbits of the Earth, Moon and Sun2. Moon phases and the lunar cycle3. Gravity!4. Gravity and the tide5. Types of tides6. The tides and me!7. Tide tables8. Extra insight


1. Orbits of the Earth, Moon and Sun

EarthThe Earth is not stationary. It is always spinning on it’s own axis. It takes 24 hours for the Earth to fully spin around. This is why our day is 24 hours long!

The Earth also rotates around the sun. It takes 365 ¼ days to orbit the sun.

Sun

Earth


1. Orbits of the Earth, Moon and Sun

Moon

The moon is the only satellite to orbit the Earth.It takes approximately 28 days for the moon to orbit the Earth.

Earth


2. Moon phases and the Lunar Cycle

The orbit of the moon around the Earth is known as the Moon’s cycle or Lunar cycle.The moon is made visible to us by the reflection of the sun’s light off its surface. The shape of the moon changes because of this reflection.


3. Gravity!

Gravity is a force. Like a magnet, it is a force of attraction which pulls two masses together.The Earth, Moon and Sun all have mass. We even have mass!The force of gravity keeps us rooted to the Earth so we don’t float away and keeps the Moon in Orbit around the Earth. The Sun’s mass is much bigger and keeps the Earth in orbit around it.


4. Gravity and the tide

The rise and fall of water along our coast is what we call the tide.What controls this water moving is the forces of gravity we have just discussed!The moon pulls the water surrounding the Earth closer to it. This forms a buldge of water on the side of the Earth nearest the moon.

More water = high tideEarth

Gravitational pull


4. Gravity and the tide

The type of tide we observe, depends on the distance of the Earth from the Sun and the Moon and the alignment of the Sun and the moon. The distance and alignment are constantly changing. This is because these objects are constantly spinning, orbiting and rotating.This results in tidal cycles and different tidal heights.


5. Types of tide

High tide = the highest level the water reaches before it starts to fall.Low tide = the lowest level the water reaches before it begins to rise.


6. The tides and me


7. Tide tables

Now that we know tides are affected by the moon, we can use this information to tell when the tide will be high or low.Using this information scientists have gathered all their data and created tide tables.The tide tables tell us all we need to know about the high and low tide in our area and when they will occur.

Extra Insight


Earth

Earth

Earth

Earth

Lunar Phase Alignment


Spring tides are exceptionally high and low tides. An average tidal height is approximately 4.5m on the west coast of Ireland. On a Spring tide, this height could reach 5.5-5.7m.

Lunar phase: Full Moon and New Moon where there is a straight alignment.

Earth

Earth


Neap tides occur twice a month, during the first and last quarter of the lunar cycle. These occur when the Sun and the Moon are at right angles to each other.

Lunar Phase: 90 angle between the Earth, Moon and Sun. ⁰They are no longer aligned and pulling in the one direction.

Earth

Earth


For extra resources• NASA- Tidal Curiosities• NOAA- SciJinks resources• Spacefacts! website• ‘Watchknowlearn’ have some videos on Ocean tides• KidsGeo is a geography based website for children• The Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia has the worlds largest tidal

range. There are several online resources and timelapse videos of tidal cycles here.

• The Galway Atlantaquaria youtube channel has a brief video on the tides. Part of this video has a time-lapse of the tidal ebb and flow on Gratten beach where the children can observe life on the seashore in and out of the water and the rise and fall of the tide.

explorers education programme: the tides & me

Documents

moon changes

earththe earth

moon acts

earth4the moon

idea of orbits

tides students

lunar cyclegravity

moons cycle