The ocean tides on Earth are much more complicated than thoy might at first seem from the simple physics that underlies tides. Discuss some of the factors that make the real tides so complicated and how these factors affect the tides. Some factors to consider: the distribution of land and oceans; the Moon's varying distance from Earth in its orbit, the fact that the Moon's orbital plane is not perfectly aligned with the ecliptic and neither the Moon's orbit nor the ecliptic is aligned with Earth's equator..