i know the moon pulls the water around and the gravity hole near india, but like, would their still be a height difference without lunar tides? also isnt it one big whole body of water? how is one side taller than the other
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Imagine the Earth is a big ball and the ocean is a thin layer of water covering it. Now, the moon, which is a smaller ball in the sky, has a type of “pull” (we call this gravity) that it uses to attract things towards it. This pull is stronger on things that are closer to it and weaker on things that are farther away.
So, when the moon is above a specific part of the Earth, it’s pulling on the water there more strongly than on the water on the other side of the Earth. This causes the water to bulge out a bit towards the moon, creating a high tide.
But why is there also a high tide on the other side of Earth, farthest from the moon? That’s because the moon’s gravity is also pulling on the Earth itself, but not as strongly on the water on the far side. That water gets “left behind” a bit, creating another bulge and another high tide.
As the Earth rotates, different parts of the Earth pass under the moon, so the bulges (the high tides) move around the Earth. That’s why most places on Earth see two high tides and two low tides every day.
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