[HPsquared]

So it's a bunch of complicated splashy water that is excited by the moon moving past, and follows along at the same frequency - but it's not a simple wave travelling around the world, for various reasons.

The earth itself is squashed like that with two bulges, but the water on the surface exhibits a more complex motion.

[tomxor]

> So it's a bunch of complicated splashy water that is excited by the moon moving past

This explanation is so much better.

If people want to use big words they can say fluid dynamics, but yeah, it's a complex system with a big orbiting body pulling on it regularly, that gives the complex system rhythm but not order.

[II2II]

That would be akin to describing a computer as a complicated arrangement of switches that control each other through pulses of electricity to do useful stuff. While it may satisfy a bunch of people who aren't really interested in how computers work, and it may even inspire a few people who are intrigued by how such a simple notion could produce incredible results, it doesn't really explain how computers work.

[tomxor]

Splashy complicated water is an accurate but imprecise description, which is exactly what you want for an introduction. It's a complex chaotic system.

Computers are a terrible analogy for this type of minimal explanation of natural phenomena because computers are layers of designed complexity built by exploiting an understanding of multiple distinct natural phenomena... At the composite scale computers are a very unatural human construct, not something emergent that can be accurately expressed informally.

[darkerside]

But it is actually a bit more accurate than saying, electricity goes in and information comes out

[dexwiz]

Information and electricity go in and information and heat go out, to be pedantic about a simplification.

[darkerside]

If you're going to be pedantic, information and heat go into and come out of just about everything

[kevindamm]

Electricity and possibly information, unless you're considering the structure itself to be information. Some ASICs only need to be powered on, for example.