What are tides?

Tides are the way oceans go up and down, just like when you fill a glass with water and tip it back and forth.

Imagine you're playing with a toy boat in a bathtub. When you splash the water, the boat goes up and then down, that’s kind of like what happens in the real ocean, but much bigger.

There’s a big moon in the sky, and it pulls on the oceans, just like when you pull a toy car with a string. When the moon is close to a part of Earth, the water there gets pulled up, that makes a high tide. On the opposite side of Earth, the water also gets pulled away, that’s another high tide, and in between are low tides.

The sun also helps with tides, like when you push your toy boat from the other side. Sometimes the sun and moon work together to make really big tides, called spring tides, and sometimes they work against each other, making smaller tides, called neap tides.

So, tides are just the ocean moving up and down because of the moon, and sometimes the sun too!