How Does Gravity Affect the Tides?

Gravity is like a big invisible hand pulling things toward each other. The moon's gravity pulls on the Earth, and since water can move more easily than land, it gets pulled up into high tides, while the opposite side gets a low tide.

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Examples

When the moon is high in the sky, you might notice the water rising, that's a high tide.
In places far from the moon, like on the other side of Earth, there’s also a high tide, even though you can't see the moon.
Sometimes when the sun and moon are together, tides get really big, it’s called a spring tide.

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Categories: Physics · gravity,tides,oceanography