Question #0c98d

1 Answer
Feb 4, 2018

Neal tides are weak.

Explanation:

Neap tides are the weakest tides.

Two bodies cause tides on Earth, the Sun and the Moon. The Moon creates high tides along the line from Earth to Moon and the corresponding low tides along a perpendicular line. The Sun does the same with the line from Earth to Sub, but the Sun's effect is weaker because the Sun is so much farther away than the Moon.

When you consider both the Sun and the Moon, there are two extreme situations. In one case the Earth, Moon and Sun are all in the same line so the high tides along that line add up, and the perpendicularly oriented low tides add up too. This is called a spring tide, as if the tide were springing up from the lowest low tide to the highest high tide.

The opposite situation is when the Sun and Moon are perpendicularly oriented relative to Earth, like the first or last quarter phase of the Moon. Where the Moon tends to create a high tide the Sun tends to create a low tide, the two bodies are fighting each other. Ultimately the Moon wins out, but the net effect is only about half of what you would get if the tides added together. This is called a neap tide.