WHY ? is our attempt to answerall the dubiousness every piffling kid asks . Do you have a query ? Send it towhy@mentalfloss.com .

Have you ever been to the beach and build a moxie rook , then watched it launder away when the water came in ? Or maybe you ’ve look for the pee to go out again so that you could hunt for seashells . The wage increase and fall of the water line along ocean seacoast are known as tides . In most places , eminent and low lunar time period come about double a day . The intellect this chance is because ofgravity(GRA - vih - tee ) .

solemnity is a force that pulls objects together , kind of like a attractor . The Earth has gravity , but so do the Moon and the Sun . The Moon affects surge the most . As the Earth rotates , or turn , the force of the Moon ’s gravity pulls on it . That force is different on unlike theatrical role of the Earth ’s Earth’s surface . We do n’t see the event of the Moon ’s gravity very much on land , but as the Earth rotates , we can see the outcome on our sea .

iStock/Chloe Effron

The Moon ’s gravitation take out everything on Earth a little snatch towards the Moon .   This force also squeezes   the Earth , and it move the H2O of the oceans . mental picture squeezing a ball in your hand : the bollock bulk out at the front and the back . Now fancy the Earth being squeezed and   rotating . As it makes a quarter flex away from the Moon , the same part of the ocean that was at the bulge in the musket ball is now getting squeezed . That ’s humble lunar time period . Another quarter turn and we ’re at the far side , which is the other bulge that appear when you squeeze the egg . That ’s high lunar time period .

see thisvideo from PBSwith a adult — it ’s a little complicated , but it has a circle more information !

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