: how does the moon affect the ocean tides despite being so far away? and what aspect of the ocean does the moon affect?
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Short answer: Gravity. Just like the Earths gravity pulls the Moon toward it, the Moon also pulls on the Earth, though not quite as strong, because it’s a lot smaller than Earth. In fact, you were probably taught in school that the Moon orbits the Earth, but technically, they both orbit a point inbetween them called a barycenter, but i digress.
See, when the Moons gravity pulls on things on Earth, it pulls on every particle individually, thus making all of them want to move towards the Moon. For the crust, this isn’t really an option, as the Earths gravity along with intermolecular forces keep it in place (Though it does deform a little bit), but the same is not true for the oceans.
Since they are liquid, the particles in the ocean can move freely, more or less. Thus, you’ll have some particles within the water bunching up in the side that is turned towards the Moon, and this mountain of particles “follows” the Moon as the Earth turns, which is why tides exist.
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