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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 February 2012
The object of this paper is not to produce a chart of co-tidal and co-range lines which is more accurate than an existing one, but to investigate methods of computing such charts on the supposition that there are no observations of tidal streams such as were used to produce the existing chart. Only coastal observations of tidal elevations are supposed to be known, for such conditions would exist in many parts of the world. The methods used are similar to the so-called “relaxation methods”, using finite differences in all variables and attempting to satisfy all the conditions of motion within the sea, proceeding by successive approximations. There are many difficulties, peculiar to the tidal problem, in the application of these methods, due to the very irregular coast-lines and depths, gaps in the coasts, shallow water near the coasts, frictional forces, and the very serious complication due to the fact that the tides are oscillating and thus require two phases to be investigated simultaneously owing to their reactions one upon the other. One very important point in testing the methods is that no use whatever should be made of existing charts in obtaining first approximations of heights to commence the processes, not even where there are wide entrances to the sea. The resulting chart is shown to be very closely the same as the existing chart, thus proving the validity of the method.