How is it that the moon can affect the 352 quintillion gallons of water in the ocean, but not affect us?

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The moon depending on where it is at your time of day can affect whether or not there’s high or low tides. Basically moving all of the water in the ocean, at least that’s how I think. But how come it doesn’t make us feel lighter or heavier throughout the day? Or just seem to affect anything else

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Anonymous 0 Comments

We’re too small. It does affect us, but to no noticeable degree.

Earth is close to us. It pulls very *heavily* on everything on it. Including all the water on it. This creates a LOT of pressure as the weight of water piles onto itself in the deepest parts of the sea.

The moon pulls *very slightly* on everything on earth. The further it is from us, the less it pulls. So, if the moon is close, everything on earth isn’t being pulled as heavily from the Earth’s gravity, since a *tiny* bit of that force is alleviated.

We can’t notice that change. But, in the deepest parts of the ocean, a *little* bit of change in force is enough to alleviate some of the pressure built up from the water on top of it. On the other side of the planet, water is still being pulled by the moon, compressing it down, creating pressure which will be alleviated when the orbit swings back around.

All the pressure differences across the planet end up creating low and high tides, which as others have described, can be thought of as a “bulge” of water that faces the moon.

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