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What Causes the Tides to Rise and Fall?

Imagine you're on a seesaw with your friend. When one of you goes up, the other goes down, that's like how tides work! Moon pulls on Earth’s oceans, making them rise on one side and fall on the other. Sometimes the Sun joins in, making even bigger tides.

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Examples

  1. The ocean bulges up when the Moon is overhead, creating a high tide.
  2. When the Moon is on the opposite side of Earth, another high tide forms there too.
  3. During full moons, the Sun and Moon pull together to create really big tides.

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Categories: Science · tides· moon· gravity· oceanography · Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.