The moon has a profound effect on the tides. The gravitational pull of the moon creates two tidal bulges in the earth’s oceans- one on the side of the earth facing the moon, and one on the opposite side. These tidal bulges are caused by the difference in gravitational force between the moon and the earth.
The tidal range is also affected by the Moon phase. Around the New Moon and Full Moon, the difference between high and low tide is the biggest. Because the Earth is aligned with the Sun and Moon, and their gravitational pulls combine to draw the ocean’s water in the same direction during these Moon phases, the solar and lunar tides coincide.
What effect does the Moon have on the tides?
The tides are the result of the moon exerting its gravitational force on the ocean and bulging it both toward and away from the moon. The tide is higher, the ocean is higher, at the location closest to the moon and on the opposite side of the Earth. As the Earth rotates, the position relative to the moon changes, so the bulge moves.
This begs the question “Why does the Moon have more effect on tides?”
The ocean tides on earth are caused by both the moon’s gravity and the sun’s gravity. Even though the sun is much more massive and therefore has stronger overall gravity than the moon, the moon is closer to the earth so that its gravitational gradient is stronger than that of the sun.
One frequent answer is, High and low tides are caused by the moon. The moon’s gravitational pull generates something called the tidal force. The tidal force causes Earth—and its water—to bulge out on the side closest to the moon and the side farthest from the moon. These bulges of water are high tides.
Tides are caused more by the moon than by the sun, because while they appear the same size in the sky, the moon is denser. That may seem an oddly phrased statement, but bear with me. Other answers have given a good outline of how tidal forces arise: as a difference in gravitational force on one side of the earth vs the other.
Is the Moon the only thing that affects tides?
There’s really only one thing in this universe that happens on exactly that schedule, and that’s the Moon. Plus, the Sun also makes a tide, and the rising and setting of the Sun matches up with the timing of the smaller tide perfectly as well. That tide is EXACTLY every six h “ Does the moon actually affect the tides? Or is that just a myth?
Tides originate in the ocean and progress toward the coastlines, where they appear as the regular rise and fall of the sea surface. Thanks to Sir Isaac Newton’s 1687 discovery, we know that tides are very long-period waves that move through the ocean in response to forces exerted by the moon and sun. However, these gravitational forces do not control when high or low tide events occur.