This book presents the history of the tides and shows how it is part of the history of a broad area of science and the subject provides insight into the progress of science as a whole: this volume will therefore appeal to all those interested in how scientific ideas develop.

The texts provide 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 pages are filled with amply illustrated with diagrams from historical scientific papers, photographs of artefacts, and portraits of some of the subject¿s leading protagonists.

It will particularly interest specialists in oceanography, hydrography, geophysics, geodesy, astronomy and navigation.