The moon, too, has gravity. Its gravitational pull is much less than the Earth’s, as its mass is smaller, but it still has an effect on Earth. On the side of the Earth nearest the Moon, the oceans are pulled out by the Moon’s gravity, causing a high tide. Exactly the same thing happens on the opposite side of the Earth, but this time because the Moon is exerting less pull on the waters of the oceans. As the Earth rotates on its axis, each part of the Earth is turned towards the Moon once in every twenty-four hours. That means that the seas have two high tides every twenty-four hours — once when they are facing the Moon and once when they are on the opposite side of the Earth from the Moon.
Tides are really all about gravity, and when we’re talking about the daily tides, it’s the moon’s gravity that’s causing them.
As Earth rotates, the moon’s gravity pulls on different parts of our planet. Even though the moon only has about 1/100th the mass of Earth, since it’s so close to us, it has enough gravity to move things around. The moon’s gravity even pulls on the land, but not enough for anyone to tell (unless they use special, really precise instruments).
When the moon’s gravity pulls on the water in the oceans, however, someone’s bound to notice. Water has a much easier time moving around, and the water wants to bulge in the direction of the moon. This is called the tidal force.
Because of the tidal force, the water on the side of the moon always wants to bulge out toward the moon. This bulge is what we call a high tide. As your part of the Earth rotates into this bulge of water, you might experience a high tide.
One thing to note, however, is that this is just an explanation of the tidal force—not the actual tides. In real life, the Earth isn’t a global ocean, covered in an even layer of water. There are seven continents, and that land gets in the way. The continents prevent the water from perfectly following the moon’s pull. That’s why in some places, the difference between high and low tide isn’t very big, and in other places, the difference is drastic.
Picture Credit : Google