What Causes the ‘Tides’ and Why Are They So Predictable?

Imagine the ocean is a big, stretchy blanket. The Moon pulls on it like a magnet, making parts of the blanket rise up and other parts fall down, that’s how tides work! Every day, as the Moon goes around Earth, this pulling happens twice, giving us two high tides and two low tides each day. Because the Moon follows the same path every year, scientists can figure out what the tides will be like in months or even centuries.

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Examples

  1. A child playing in the shallows at the beach notices the water gets deeper as the day goes on, that’s a high tide.
  2. A fisherman knows when to go out to sea because he sees the water recede every morning, that's a low tide.
  3. The Moon is like a giant invisible hand pulling up parts of the ocean each night.

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