What Is Tidal Flexing?

Tidal flexing is when something gets squished and stretched by gravity, just like a playdough figure being pulled by two hands.

Imagine you're holding a soft ball with both hands. If you pull your hands apart slowly, the ball stretches in the middle and gets squished on the sides, that’s tidal flexing in action!

The moon is like that soft ball, and Earth is like your hands. Because Earth's gravity pulls on the moon, the moon gets slightly stretched and squeezed as it orbits us. This stretching and squeezing happens all the time, even though we can't see it.

This tidal flexing helps create the ocean tides on Earth too! Just like your hands pulling the ball changes its shape, the moon’s pull causes water to bulge out in two places, one facing Earth and one on the opposite side, making high and low tides. So next time you're at the beach, remember: the moon is doing a little dance with the oceans, all because of gravity!