Why do lakes not have Waves ? What are Tides? How do they differ from Waves?

Hi Friends,

Have you ever wandered why there are waves in the sea but not in a lake?

To answer this question let us first discuss as to how waves are formed. Actually, waves are formed by the wind, when the wind moves on the surface of the water it causes friction as a result some part of the water is pushed down and some parts pushed up, these areas of water which were moved up and down then starts spinning in a circle and this is the beginning of a wave.

So, when the amount of wind increases the bigger those waves can get.

When these waves get closer to land the spinning effect cause the water to move up and down on the surface and eventually causes the waves to crash on the sand.

The waves can be easily confused with tides.

What is the difference between a tide and a wave? 

Actually, the generation of a tide is mainly due to the effect of the interaction of the gravitational forces by the moon the earth and to some extent the sun.

But waves are purely because of the power of the wind.

Therefore, it can be said that during the full moon a high tide could be seen because of the aliment of the planet to the sun and the moon.

So why would you not see waves in a lake?

Let’s leave the tides out of this equation because it is due to the effect of the moon.

Since the waves are caused by sheer wind power the longer the wind blows across the water the bigger the wave that is generated.

Wind blowing across 100 Km will be greater than that created by 5 Km.

This shows why we can see waves in larger lakes and oceans but not in small lakes.

Therefore, it can be generalized that the smaller lakes do not have enough area to catch much wind and the volume is much smaller for the effect of the moon.

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