rationalskepticism.org

jamest wrote:

campermon wrote:
The effect is very small and the oceans are very big.

I would have thought that the size of the oceans was irrelevant.

Yes in the sense of no. The area of the oceans doesn't matter much, but the average depth of the ocean over a local area does. Consider a water column a meter square. (The area doesn't matter all that much as long as it's small compared to curvature , but it's easier to think about.) The reduction in tides affects every cubic meter in the column. The total effect can be measured in the weight of the difference in the water column between high tide and low tide (or, technically, half of that). So a very small difference in weight over each cubic meter in the water column can add up to a difference of a few meters in the height of the water column.

So, the average depth of the ocean is 3790 meters. To see a 1 meter rise, the reduction in weight only has to be 1/3790.

Of course, this is a ridiculously oversimplified picture and does not account for many real-world aspects, but at least it shows the basic idea.