How Does the Moon Affect the Tides?

The key to understanding how the tides work is understanding the relationship between the motion of our planet and the Moon.

The Moon's gravitational forces are strong enough to accelerate the water towards the Moon. This causes the water to 'bulge.' As the Moon orbits our planet and as the Earth rotates, the bulge also moves. The areas of the Earth where the bulging occurs experience High Tide, and the other areas are low tide. Water on the opposite side of Earth facing away from the Moon also bulges outward (high tide), but for a different reason. With the Earth-Moon system, gravity is like a rope that pulls or keeps the two bodies together, and centrifugal force is what keeps them apart. Because the centrifugal force is greater than the Moon's gravitational pull, ocean water on the opposite side of the Earth bulges outward.