Solved cryptogram
When the sun lines up with the moon, twice a month, the tides swing to their fullest range.
Earth Science Facts, sourced to NOAA.
Solve it yourself
This fact is a cryptogram here: 71 letters over 18 different ones, graded medium.
Or go to the puzzle’s own page first.
What it means
The moon does the heavy lifting and the sun adds about half as much again. At new moon and full moon the two pulls act along the same line and reinforce each other, giving higher highs and lower lows, and those are spring tides. The name has nothing to do with the season; it is spring in the sense of leaping. A week later the sun sits at right angles, partly canceling the moon, and the range shrinks to a neap tide.
The claim comes from NOAA.
- SourceNOAA
- CollectionEarth Science Facts
- Difficultymedium
- Length71 letters, 18 of them different
Nearby in the collection
The facts either side of this one.
- U.S. Geological Surveyhard, 72 letters
- NOAAmedium, 72 letters
- NOAAmedium, 75 letters
- NOAAhard, 77 letters
About as hard as this one
Scored closest to it by the model behind our guide to solving cryptograms.
- NASAmedium, 82 letters
- U.S. Geological Surveymedium, 71 letters
- NOAAmedium, 74 letters
- NOAAmedium, 81 letters