The tide

[tanyavee]

When the tide is in on the west coast of Ireland is it out on the east coast of North America

[jake-the-peg]

The high tide follows the moon so it's low 90 degrees from this, high 180 degress from the moon and high 270 degrees.

When the sun lines up with the moon you get an especially high and especially low tide, these are spring tides (nothing to do with the season) this is why new and full moons are associated with spring tides.

When the sun is at 90 degrees you get a small difference between high and low tides called neap tides

Pictorially it looks like this:

http://oceanlink.island.net/oinfo/tides/neap.gif

Bantry has a longitude of 9 degrees West and New York has a longitude of 75 degrees west however Rome has a longitude of 12 degrees east so Rome and New York are a closer match

[jake-the-peg]

Yeah I know - whether there are tides in the Med are of great debate - Capetown then that's 18 degrees east

[Bonzo 2000]

I'e often wondered about this too, because it does not seem to be as simple a two bulges of sea moving around the world. Local conditions seem to have an effect on the movement of water - even within the Britsh Isles, tide tables reveal very significant high tide time differences between locations which are actually relatively close - differnces of almost 6 hours.

[jake-the-peg]

Yeah there are some amazing local variations as the water tries to keep up with the gravitational force and the land stops it. I believe some parts of the Solent have 4 high tides a day

[Tim Baxter]

I think tides are greatly increased by the land mass which is blocking their progress, also the shape of the land mass through which the moon/sun are trying do drag the water.  So the bay of Fundy (or should it be funnelly) in the North-West Atlantic and the Severn estuary, funnel water up a decreasing width forcing it to get ever higher.  Places like the Med have no or little tidal variation because there is no mass of water being dragged round the earth.  It's stopped by the Straits of Gibralter.  Similarly there is little tidal range in mid-ocean around isolated islands, mainly because there's no land to impede the water's progress.  I hope!