• Question: why does the moon affect the sea ?

    Asked by sammy1 to Ben, Clare, Ezzy, Mario, Sam on 16 Mar 2012. This question was also asked by clummy.
    • Photo: Mario Campanelli

      Mario Campanelli answered on 16 Mar 2012:


      the moon’s gravitational attraction (as well as the sun’s) moves big masses of water, creating tides. What not so many people know, is that also the solid ground moves by about 10 cm due to that!

    • Photo: Elizabeth Pearson

      Elizabeth Pearson answered on 16 Mar 2012:


      The moon is very big and so is affected by gravity a lot. It pulls on all the earth, but the seas can move a lot more and so we get the tides as the moon pulls on the water and pushes it around.

    • Photo: Clare Burrage

      Clare Burrage answered on 17 Mar 2012:


      The moon has a lot of mass, which means it attracts everything towards it using gravity – even you and me! But the force we feel is very weak, so it doesn’t affect how we live our lives. But because wather is a liquid, it’s very easy to move around and even the weak force from the gravitational pull of the moon is enough to pull the water in our oceans and seas slightly towards the moon. These are the high and low tides we see.

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