Some might find this book interesting:

Tides : A Scientific History
David Edgar Cartwright
Cambridge University Press

"This book describes the growth of scientific understanding of a
phenomenon which is superficially familiar but subtly complex,
starting with primitive ideas in the remote past and leading up to
sophisticated geophysical relationships which require modern computers
and space technology for their evaluation. ..."

"It is not an encyclopaedic review of modern tidal knowledge, but it
is the story of how such knowledge came about."

"Inevitably the subject requires the use of at least some of the
terminology of elementary mathematical physics, but I have kept such
terminology to the minimum necessary to make work in a wide range of
disciplines intelligible to the general scientific reader who
understands mathematical language, without trivialising the thought
behind it." (So now you are warned)

The above quotes are from the preface.

Peter S/Y Anicula

P.S. This recommendation, is of course inspired by the previous
discussions about different explanation models, but has otherwise
nothing to do with it.