The object on the right is a Tide Clock. This one is set to indicate the state of the tide at Ramsden Dock, Barrow In Furness, Cumbria, England. When the single hand is in the 12 ' clock position it is High Tide. By the time the hand has reached the 6 o' clock position it will be Low Tide. Each rotation of the clock is timed (to 12 hours and 25 minutes) to coincide with the gravitational effects of the lunar cycle. This is the approximate time which elapses between the tides. Do NOT stake your life on this clock! Wind direction and speed and atmospheric presure and a whole host of other parameters can have a marked effect on the speed at which the tides travel, and this clock does not take those factors into account in any way shape or form. Note also that this clock is not dynamic - it you sit watching it it will not change - it is only updated when you refresh the page or fetch a new page from the server.

The PHP code for creating this clock uses VML and is freely available for use on your own site.

The above file will be saved to your hard drive as as tideclock.txt -- rename it "tideclock.php" and upload it to a php-enabled server and it should work in an identical manner to the one on this site. View the file in a text editor if you wish to change any of the user-configurable variable.

If you arrived on this page by clicking a Tide Clock on someone else's site try use the BACK botton to return there.

the same clock configured differently for other locations:-