To think that every person above age 10 at least should know that the moon affects the tides?

[HateSummer]

I was working with someone aged in their early 20's recently who had never heard of this and were really shocked. I was really shocked they didnt know.

Isn't this basic science taught in primary school? Along with the moon cycle and seasons?

ethelfleda errr.... you do realise sunset and sunrise DO change everyday right? Which is why we have solstices and equinoxes?

YABNU, OP but I am old and jaded and very little surprises me.

I worked with someone in her 20s who thought that islands float on the sea. She has always lived on an island, did she not wonder why it never moved when the sea was rough?

did she not wonder why it never moved when the sea was rough

Or why it always stayed in the same position...give or take.

I suppose islands sort of float on tectonic plates..... perhaps there was a bit of confusion between that and the sea?

I only knew this because i had an older brother who told me. i must have been around 10 - ( i dont recall much of primary school and they didnt bother much with science at my primary in the 70s)
i remember looking out to sea and it seemed ridiculous at the time.
The physics of it all is still something i dont understand. People who understand science amaze me as i found it hard and only passed Biology.

Fuck me, pedant alert!! Don't start you lot!

There are not 13 months in a year, there are 12.

There are indeed 13 'four-weekly' periods, and 13 cycles of the moon, in a year, but not 13 calendar months. Anyone who thinks there are 13 calendar months in a year, needs to give their head a wobble!

By the way, I can't get my head around the fact that someone who claims to have 2 uni degrees, doesn't know that the moon affects the tides.

Yeah, there is no need to know this (technically.) In fact, there is no need to know lots of things, but you still bleedin' know them if they're basic bloody obvious common knowledge!!!

I don't really understand why people aren't intellectually curious about things.

I know, but only because I researched it in great depth for a paper I wrote on lunar effects on humans.

I knew the basics of course but had to familiarise myself with the actual science before I wrote my paper (lunar effects on humans was mainly anecdotal evidence if anyone interested!!)

• anyone is interested

I knew the basics of course but had to familiarise myself with the actual science before I wrote my paper (lunar effects on humans was mainly anecdotal evidence if anyone interested!!)

I'd heard that it was generally anecdotal, although police officers and a&e nurses can be quite firm believers.

And midwives.

I don't really understand why people aren't intellectually curious about things.

It surely depends what "things" you're talking about.

I'm curious about many things. The relationship between the tides and the moon doesn't happen to be one of them.

Hmm want to discuss politics, I mean good to learn difference of opinions and learn stuff I may not know after all as a voter it effects my life in someway. Or different religions as I'm always interested in that.

Moon effecting tide... Ok cheers. Let me apply that my daily life etc. Honestly I question why do you are baffled or assume someone doesn't want to learn knowledge just on the tide & moon lack of interest

Butchy it's really basic stuff. You might just as well claim that you aren't interested in why there is day and night. (You probably will now.)

I'd heard that it was generally anecdotal, although police officers and a&e nurses can be quite firm believers.

Well this is exactly how we got onto the subject of the moon and tides. It was exceptionally slow at work compared to about 2 weeks ago and I suggested it was either everyone was on holiday or because it wasn't a full moon .
Ds was born on the night of a full moon too, so I like believing odd things like this 😂

Actually is it bad that I didn't know either. I probably learned it at school but I don't remember it. Or chose not to. Got a D in physics.
Ok so I admit I just watched a YouTube video. I get the moon gravitational pull bit but when he started on about the sun pull and spring tides, I got fed up, my brain shut down, I wasn't even 3 mins into it. And this was a kids type video. I'll probably not take any of it in if I tried.
Now the science of the human body.....I'm all in...

Butchy it's really basic stuff. You might just as well claim that you aren't interested in why there is day and night. (You probably will now.)

You've got me thinking about whether I really do why there is day and night (I think I do!)

The relationship between the moon and tides may be 'basic' general knowledge in your opinion, but it's not something I can recall being taught, or indeed a question/issue that has ever arisen in my day-to-day living of some 38 years.

Which brings me back to the original question, why does one "need" to know about lunar tides? Is my life going to become exponentially enriched by this nugget of information?

I learned that a full moon means everyone goes crazy and turns into a werewolf. 😂 And then they throw wild parties on Koh Pangan where they do lots of things that my innocent imagination doesn't even want to wander.

Haha!! Don't remember when I learnt it, but pretty sure I was older than 10!!! ...and I still get confused with all this stuff! Ive got a PhD and an IQ of 155! I have pretty rubbish general knowedge compared to many! but I also know some stuff others don't!!

We all learn differently! Retain facts differently! See different bits of information as important and worth remembering!

And it is that sort of person who thinks a scientist is an expert that should be mistrusted, and that science is some weird faith based on opinion, and that Brexit is a good idea, and that sex is a continuum

Could you expand on that last one? Anne Fausto-Sterling was slightly tongue-in-cheek when she wrote about the five sexes but the point that the difference is not clearly binary still stands.

I think however intellectually curious someone is, they will always have blind spots. I got annoyed when the QI Elves decided that the equation for respiration was an explosion in a custard factory and scientific ignorance is particularly annoying IMO. However, even very bright people do have curious gaps in their knowledge.

Knowing about lunar tides might be useful if you're on low lying land by the coast, or needing to use causeways that are covered by the sea at high tide.

Of course, tide tables are easy enough to look up online these days, and you wouldn't need to be worrying about lunar cycles with tide tables to hand.

There's so much info out there now. Years ago, in the early 90s I read a piece in the Guardian that was speculating on just this, and they reckoned that John Milton was probably the last person who would have had comprehensive knowledge of the world.

What made me and :o was they felt the need to explain to the Guardian readership that John Milton was a poet.

It is just such a small piece of knowledge. I have an MA in literature - I don't go around telling people they don't have a thirst for knowledge because they can't read old English, don't know who Eliza Haywood is, or can't tell me the origins of female pirate myth in Elizabethan plays - all things I think are actually very relevant to our language and way of perceiving writing today.

Although, I did end up having a google about the moon, so thank you for expanding my knowledge.

I don't mean to be snappy, but the trope of all under 25s being dim and sat in a corner with their finger up their nose is wearing a little thin.

I think it's basic general knowledge. I can't tell you how it does it but I know that it does 👩‍🎓