>>imurra+(OP)
The problem of predicting tides was so important that it attracted many Physics and Maths heavy weights. You can well imagine how important predicting tides would have been for D-day landing.

One related fascinating historical artifact is the special purpose analogue computer designed by Lord Kelvin in the 1860s based on Fourier series, harmonic analysis. Think difference engine in it's cogs and cams glory, but special purpose.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tide-predicting_machine

Possibly one of the first examples of Machine learning, with Machine in capital 'M'. It incorporated recent tidal observations to update it's prediction.

Note that sinusoids are universal approximators for a large class of functions, an honour that is by no means restricted to deep neural nets.

George Darwin (Charles Darwin's son) was a significant contributor in the design and upgrade of the machine.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Darwin

Other recognizable names who worked on tide prediction problem were Thomas Young (of double slit experiment fame) and Sir George Airy (of Airy disk fame).

>>srean+da
Veritasium made a video on this topic a couple of years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgF3OX8nT0w

>>srean+da
Have you seen the SF bay model? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i70wkxmumAw

>>imurra+(OP)
When I was in grad school in astronomy, one of my professors told me "many a promising young researcher has run their career aground on the rocky shores of tides."

The mathematics involved in the theory of tides are formidable. Even in homogeneous, tidally locked systems things can get complicated very quickly.

But tides are nevertheless very important. One two objects pass very close to each other, tidal effects are substantial and can actual destroy one of the objects: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_disruption_event

>>Calwes+BG
I like AlphaPhoenix's video on it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3gnNpYK3lo

>>CGMthr+jj
Check out current lab

Hyperlocal ocean modeling for science, defense, and recreational applications.

https://www.current-lab.com

Anecdotally works very well in Tidal harbors with multiple rivers.

>>srean+da
The Battle of Clontarf on April 23rd 1014 springs to mind. While the high tide was of favour for the invading Vikings (who had already founded and still ruled Dublin) at 5:30 in the morn, the battle lasted all day and the next high tide at 17:55 cut off their way to a nearby wood and many killed or drowned as their were pushed against the tide. The times were calculated in 1860 by Samuel Haughton.

There is of course an In Our Time episode https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0029qh3

>>dghlsa+v31
And then there's the Solent which for Springs has a double high tide as the western end of the Solent is quite narrow and the tide racing around the Isle of White and in from the wider eastern side. https://www.nci.org.uk/solent-tides/

>>antogn+Kl
See also:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roche_limit

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roche_lobe

Indeed given that we now think most of the heavy elements in the universe were created in type 1a mass-transfer supernovae, we can ultimately thank tidal phenomena for the existence of things like rocky planets and humans.

>>imurra+(OP)
That animation is great. I found the person who made it: https://ceoas.oregonstate.edu/directory/svetlana-erofeeva

That links to this website which has a similar animation for the current day: https://www.tpxo.net/

>>kgwgk+Ae1
Thank you. I still feel the stackexchange post misses the forest for the trees (and weeds). Take a look at the NOAA global map showing coasts that have semidiurnal tides (that is, one in roughly ~12 hours) [1].

Most all of the coast of Africa is semidiurnal. So is east coast of North America, a lot of South America. Bay of Bengal, a lot of Europe. If you see the map on the RWU [2] site it shows Greenland and the north coast of Russia (although stretched due to the latitude) are also semidiurnal. This is a major part of the global coastline. The simple mental model explains this. I feel that going to partial differential equations, fourier series, etc. etc. is a little too complicated.

[1] https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_tides/tides... [2] https://rwu.pressbooks.pub/webboceanography/chapter/11-3-tid... -

>>imurra+(OP)
What's a similarity between Iceland and Southwestern Australia? TIL

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphidromic_point