Serway & Jewett — Superposition and Standing Waves: Problem 19

The Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia, has the highest tides in the world. Assume in midocean and at the mouth of the bay the Moon’s gravity gradient and the Earth’s rotation make the water surface oscillate with an amplitude of a few centimeters and a period of 12 h 24 min. At the head of the bay, the amplitude is several meters. Assume the bay has a length of 210 km and a uniform depth of 36.1 m. The speed of long-wavelength water waves is given by \(v = \sqrt{gd}\), where \(d\) is the water’s depth. Argue for or against the proposition that the tide is magnified by standing-wave resonance.