We know, due to gravity everything falls down. Do you know anything that raises up due to gravity? That is ocean's tide. Moon's gravitation pull is responsible for oceans' low tide and high tide.
The sun is hundred times heavier than earth. But it plays almost no role in causing tides. Why? Look at this formula. According Newton, the acceleration of a particle on the surface of earth due to a body of mass m at a distance d is,
2GMR/d^3, where G- gravitational constant
R - radius of the earth.
The formula tells us that acceleration due to gravitational force decreases as the cube of the distance. The sun is extremely far away. Hence, it has a negligible effect on earth's waters. But the moon is very close to us and influence the oceans.
When a part of the earth is facing the moon (refer figure), the oceans in that part bulges and raises up causing high tides in ocean.
The oceans in the opposite side of the earth also bulges up due to earth's rotational inertia. This also the consequence of the moon's gravitational pull.
The oceans in the other two sides of the earth flattens up causing low tides.
As the earth rotates; for every 20 hours and 50 minutes, a given place (seashore) experiences two low tides and two high tides. You can easily figure this out using the diagram.
When earth, moon and sun face each other in the same straight line. The joint effect of sun and moon on earth's waters is 'a bit more'.
Falling of leaves, walking, running, oceans tide we see them every day. We are used to them. But they are gravity (natural force) in action.
"Time, tide and gravity wait for no man".
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