Tides and the Mooon!

Ever been to a beach and noticed that the seawater levels are sometimes higher and sometimes lower?This is known as Tides.

In better language, Tides are periodic Rise and fall of sea levels. These are caused by the gravitational pull from the Moon and the Sun.

High Tides at Mumbai. Image Courtesy - Google.

Tides may seem to have a simpler explanation, but it does not. A French astronomer, François Arago, once said, "The Tides are Tomb of human curiosity". Which means it can break your brain as you study about the tides. Let us see!

There are a lot of factors involved in creating the tides here on Earth. Three major players are the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun. The gravitational pull from all three bodies interacting with each other creates the tides.

The biggest player here is surprisingly the Moon. Moon exerts as much as 2.2 times more gravitational pull on Earth than the Sun. This gravitation pulls the Earth toward the Moon. Since the Landmasses are pinned down to the Earth and so are the most things, they don't seem to have a noticeable effect. Water, however, being fluid is affected the most.

The process can be explained in three segments.

One. As seen in the image here, the side facing the Moon experiences the most powerful pull and is pulled further towards the Moon. This creates a bulge of water in the oceans.

 Two, The Earth (rocky part) experiences a slightly lesser force and is pulled slightly towards the Moon. This decreases the tide on the first side, but it creates room for another tide.

Three, the opposite side experiences the least force and thus it remains in almost a similar place. However, as explained in point two, the Earth has slightly shifted towards the Moon, it creates another bulge of water.

These two bulges on either side of the Earth raise the water level and you get High Tide. The quantity of water is then pulled from the sides that are perpendicular to the Moon and the sea level there falls. This is how you get low tides.

Since Earth rotates around itself in 24 hours, you get two high tides and two low tides per day.

One more thing to notice is, while the Earth rotates around itself, the Moon also rotates around the Earth. So the next day, the Moon has already moved from its position making tides at different times, approximately around 50 minutes later from the previous day.

The other factor, The Sun, also affects the tides. The Sun either enhances or diminishes the effect of tides. As shown in the picture, When the Sun, the Earth and The Moon are aligned in a straight line, the gravitational pull from the Sun also aligns with the gravitational pull from the Moon, enhancing the overall effect. This results in even higher tides. These are known as 'Spring Tides''.

Conversely, when the Sun and the Moon are at perpendicular positions, the Sun Diminishes the gravitational pull on the Earth from the Moon. This results in lower tides than normal. These are known as 'Neap tides'.

One more interesting fact about Tides. Since the Earth is constantly rotating around itself, it tries to move the bulge of water with it. the bulge of water, however, is constantly attracted to the Moon and resists its movement with the Earth. This resistance from a large body of water is strong enough to slow the Earth down.

So the Moon is slowing us down every day. And that's how we get that Leap Second.

I hope you liked the content!