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Tides in the Bay of Fundy
The following activities will focus on tides and what causes them with a focus on the unusually high tides in the Bay of Fundy.
Activity 1
The sun, moon, and Earth exert a gravitational pull on each other. The pull of the sun is much greater than that of the moon because of its enormous size. However because the moon is much closer to the Earth, it actually exerts a greater gravitational pull on the Earth. The gravitational pull of the moon draws the water toward it. This causes the water to bulge. This bulge is called high tide. The moon also pulls the Earth towards it. This then causes another bulge, another high tide, on the opposite side of the Earth. Activity 2: Please view the animated image that shows the relationship of the Earth, moon, and sun on tides. Pay special attention to where and when spring and neap tides occur. Why do you think the Spring tides are higher than the neap tides? Base your answer on the image you viewed. After you have written your opinion/hypothesis use the following sites to investigate and determine whether or not you were correct. http://www.sfgate.com/getoutside/1996/jun/tides.html http://fox.nstn.ca/~freshair/tides.html http://fox.nstn.ca/~carp/fundis2.html If you were incorrect write down the correct answer. State why you were incorrect. REMEMBER! Scientists often make hypotheses based on observations only to find out that they were incorrect. This is common and much is learned from incorrect hypotheses. Each team should produce a model of either the Spring or neap tide moon, sun, and Earth alignment and present it to the class. You may use the art teacher Mrs. Meredith as a resource to assist you with materials etc... Activity 3: Return to the image showing the tides in time lapse photography.The article states that there are two high tides per day. Actually each tide takes 12 hrs. and 25 min.. Two high tides occur in 24 hrs and 50 min. This means that the high tide is fifty minutes later each successive day. EXAMPLE: It is high tide at 4:00 pm. The water will ebb until you reach low tide. The next high tide will be at its maximum height 12 hrs. and 25 min. later. The time would then be 4:25 am. Once again the water will ebb to low tide. The next high tide will return be 12 hrs. and 25 min. later. The time now will will be 4:50 pm. A. Why do you think the above information is important? B. To whom would this information matter and why? C. It is 3:00 pm on December 15, 2000 in the Bay of Fundy and it is high tide. On what day will the tide re-occur at 3:00 pm? In your teams decide how you will solve this problem. There is more than one way to do this. You decide. Click
here if you need a hint.
Activity 4: The water that flows into the Bay of Fundy during high tide is said to equal 100 cubic kilometers. This is equal to the water discharged by all the world's fresh water rivers. To give you a better idea of just how much water this is please work your way through the following activity. You can use calculators but you don't have to. How many swimming pools could you fill up with 100 cubic kilometers? The pool's dimensions are: length = 50 meters width = 20 meters height(depth) = 4 meters REMEMBER: Volume is computed by the following formula: length*width*height or V=LWH. After you have computed the volume of the pool your answer will be in cubic meters. The volume of the water moving through the Bay of Fundy is expressed in cubic kilometers. CLUE/HINT: How many meters = one kilometer? You will have to convert 100 cubic kilometers to cubic meters. This may help you. Think about how many meters there are in one kilometer. A cubic kilometer would be a cube that measure as follows: 1 km long * 1 km wide * 1 km deep. SO: How many swimming pools will you need to hold all of this water? Now that you have found the volume of the pool in cubic meters, and found out the number of cubic meters in 100 cubic kilometers, what process will you use to find the answer (add, subtract, multiply, or divide)? Why? Find an estimate of the answer. Find the exact answer. (If you want to check your answer using a calculator, you must express the largest number in scientific notation. See your teacher for help if necessary.) HAVE FUN!!!!!! Activity 5: Why are the tides in the Bay of Fundy so high compared to tides in other parts of the world? You may use the sites listed at the end of this problem. A. List as many reasons as you can locate. B. Report your findings back to the class. (elect a team member to do this) C. The team must produce a visual aid. This could be a poster, diorama, model, etc... http://www.explorens.com/attractions/bayfundy.htm http://fox.nstn.ca/~freshair/fundy.html http://www.atlanticonline.ns.ca/travel/fundy.html http://fox.nstn.ca/~carp/fundis2.html http://www.oldcelticbooks.com/Fundy/gulf21.html http://www.valleyweb.com/fundytides/#6 http://www.scottwalking.com/quickfacts.html http://new-brunswick.net/new-brunswick/whales/tides.html
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