Eli5: how does the moon affect low and hightide of the ocean which is pretty heavy but does not cause other things which are lighter to start floating?

Question

Eli5: how does the moon affect low and hightide of the ocean which is pretty heavy but does not cause other things which are lighter to start floating?

In: Physics

Answer 1

I suppose if you had a few day old party balloon that was nearly neutral you might have some luck getting it to float at the time of a high tide. The effect the moon has is very very small, much less than one percent on measured weight. The reason the tide is observable is there is so stinking much ocean that a tiny fraction of it is still a lot of water.