Every single day the oceans of the world go through a cycle with two high tides and two low tides.

For thousands of years no one knew why the tides Rosenfell,

and even today most people only have a vague idea of what drives the tides. They dictate the lives of

many people who live near the sea and we might even be able to harness their

power in the future. Learn more about how tides work and why it's far more

complicated than you probably think on this episode of

everything everywhere daily. humans have been aware of the tides ever since they were aware of the ocean.

However, no one was really sure why the tides came in and out.

Most cultures did realize that the tides had something to do with the moon.

After all, it wasn't hard to figure out that there was a high tide

when the moon was visible overhead.

Explanations as to how the moon caused tides were different in almost every culture.

The Yungul Aboriginal people in Northern Australia

believed that the moon would fill up with water and then be emptied into the sea.

In ancient India there was a belief that the waters expanded because of the heat

from the moon. Some ancient Greeks did believe that the moon

controlled the tides but believe it or not Aristotle was not one of them.

Muslim astronomers in the 12th century created tables of the tides but they thought it was due to reasons of

astrology and in fact thought that the tides proved astrology to be true.

As astronomy became a more serious science most astronomers still believed that the moon

influenced the tides. Oddly enough, Galileo was one astronomer who ridiculed the

lunar theory of tides. He thought it was due to the rotation of the Earth and its revolution around the Sun.

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