Tides: A Scientific History

David Edgar Cartwright

Cambridge University Press, Aug 17, 2000 - History - 292 pages

This book, first published in 1998, provides a history of the study of the tides over two millennia, from the primitive ideas of the Ancient Greeks to present sophisticated space-age techniques. Tidal physics has puzzled some of the world's greatest scientists and mathematicians: amongst many others, Galileo, Descartes, Bacon, Kepler, Newton, Bernoulli, Euler, Laplace, Young, Whewell, Airy, Kelvin, G. Darwin, H. Lamb, have all contributed to our understanding of tides. The volume is amply illustrated with diagrams from historical scientific papers, photographs of artefacts, and portraits of some of the subject's leading protagonists. The history of the tides is in part the history of a broad area of science and the subject provides insight into the progress of science as a whole: this book will therefore appeal to all those interested in how scientific ideas develop. It will particularly interest specialists in oceanography, hydrography, geophysics, geodesy, astronomy and navigation.

Contents

• Introduction the overall pattern of enquiry: 1
• Early ideas and observations: 5
• Early Indian and Arabic civilisations: 6
• The ancient Greek Babylonian and Roman civilisations: 7
• The Dark Ages: 10
• What moon maketh a full sea?: 13
• Albumasar Grosseteste and Chaucer: 15
• Early tide prediction London Bridge and the Chinese bore: 16
• Brouscons Almanacs: 18
• Tide clocks: 20
• Medieval and 17th century predictions compared: 22
• Towards Newton: 25
• William Gilbert and Francis Bacon: 26
• Galileos theory of tides: 28
• John Wallis: 30
• Johannes Kepler: 31
• Newton and the Prize Essayiststhe Equilibrium Theory: 35
• Principia Book III: 40
• The System of the World: 43
• Essays for the Academie Prize of 1740: 44
• Colin Maclaurin and Leonhard Euler: 45
• Daniel Bernoulli: 46
• Measurements and empirical studies 16501825: 51
• Observations for the Royal Society of London: 52
• Sir Robert Moray: 53
• Henry Philips: 54
• Joshua Childrey: 55
• Nevil Maskelyne: 57
• Picard and La Hire at Brest: 59
• Jacques Cassini: 60
• JJ de Lalande: 64
• Observations at Brest for Marquis de Laplace: 65
• Observations at Liverpool and London Docks: 66
• Laplace and 19th century hydrodynamics: 68
• The Mécanique Céleste: 69
• Laplaces Tidal Equations: 73
• Tides without earth rotation: 75
• Nonzero rotation and the three principal species of tide: 76
• First species: 77
• Third species: 78
• Semiempirical analysis: 79
• GB Airy tides in canals: 82
• Waves of first and second class Lamb Margules and Hough: 84
• Local analysis and prediction in the 19th century: 88
• Thomas Young: 89
• Growth of organisation in the USA: 90
• JW Lubbocks synthetic analytical method: 91
• Analyses by Samuel Haughton: 92
• The automatic tide recorder: 93
• Advances in lunar theory: 95
• The harmonic analysis of tides William Thomson Lord Kelvin: 97
• Harmonic analysis under GH Darwin: 100
• Harmonic analysis under WE Ferrel: 103
• The mechanical tide predictor: 104
• Towards a map of cotidal lines: 110
• Whewells enterprise the world oceans: 111
• Tides of the German Ocean North Sea: 113
• Points of notide and Airys objection: 114
• Diurnal tides and mean tide level: 116
• Captain Fitzroy on ocean tides: 117
• Cotidal mapping by AD Bache: 118
• The work of Rollin A Harris: 119
• Early mapping of the Arctic Ocean: 124
• Tides of the geosphere the birth of geophysics: 129
• Tides in the atmosphere: 130
• Magnetic and electrical tidal variations: 138
• Earth tides and rigidity: 139
• Pendulum measurements of tidal attraction: 141
• Polar motion and the pole tide: 143
• Lunar acceleration earth retardation and tidal friction: 144
• Darwins theory of evolution of the lunar orbit: 147
• Tidal researches between World Wars I and II: 154
• The emergence of physical oceanography: 155
• Oceanic tidal friction as earth brake: 156
• Research on tidal currents Sverdrup Fjeldstad van Veen: 158
• Proudman Doodson and the Liverpool Tidal Institute: 161
• Data analysis and prediction: 163
• Fundamentals of Laplacian theory: 165
• Tides in mathematical basins on a rotating sphere: 166
• Tides in realistic oceans: 168
• Empirical world cotidal maps by Gunther Dietrich: 172
• The impact of automatic computers 19501980: 178
• The computer revolution: 179
• New solutions of tides in seas and oceans: 180
• Analogue devices for shallow seas: 183
• Tide models for the world ocean: 185
• Ocean loading and selfattraction: 188
• Normal modes of the ocean: 192
• Spectral analysis of data noise and coherence: 195
• Data analysis and prediction by the Response Method: 196
• More of the pole tide: 198
• Quantifying global tidal dissipation: 199
• The impact of instrument technology 19601990: 204
• Applications to tidal research: 206
• Early mechanical devices: 207
• The modern era of pressure recording: 208
• Pelagic tide recording in USA and Britain: 210
• An international Working Group on ocean tides: 212
• Tidal currents and internal tides: 213
• Generating mechanisms: 217
• Barotropic waves of second class Rossby waves and Continental Shelf waves: 219
• Sir Robert Morays extraordinary tydes: 220
• Advances in understanding earth tides: 221
• Instruments and results: 224
• The impact of satellite technology 19701995: 229
• Tidal variations in satellite orbits: 232
• Laser ranging to the moon: 236
• Radar altimetry of the sea surface Skylab GEOS3 Seasat: 238
• Geosat ERS1 and TOPEXPOSEIDON: 241
• Tide models for TOPEXPOSEIDON: 246
• Global parameters for earthmoon dynamics: 249
• Recent advances in miscellaneous topics and final retrospect: 252
• Observational evidence for normal modes and Q of the ocean: 254
• Interactions between air tides and ocean tides: 256
• Oceanic tidal dissipation in the geological past: 261
• Variable earth rotation at tidal frequencies: 264
• Final retrospect: 267
• Appendices: 272
• B Terms commonly applied to tides: 274
• C Development of the tidegenerating potential: 276
• D Internal tidal waves in a flat rotating sea of uniform depth: 278
• E Some simplified cases of barotropic waves of second class Rossby waves and Continental Shelf waves: 282
• F Spherical harmonic expansion of a globally defined tidal constituent: 284
• Author index: 286
• Subject index: 289

Bibliographic information

• Title: Tides: A Scientific History
• Author: David Edgar Cartwright
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2000
• ISBN: 0521797462, 9780521797467
• Length: 292 pages
• Subjects: History / General; Nature / Weather; Science / Earth Sciences / Geology; Science / Earth Sciences / Hydrology; Science / Earth Sciences / Oceanography; Science / History; Technology & Engineering / History; Transportation / Navigation