The Earth’s gravity is strong enough to keep The Moon, an immense celestial body, from flying off into space. It is also weak enough to allow us to jump and throw things in the air. How does this work?

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Similarly, why does The Moon’s gravity affect the tides but won’t, for example, cause a paperclip to slide across a desk?

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The strength of gravity depends on the mass of both gravitating objects. You are presumably much, much lighter than the Moon, so it’s not impossible for you to overcome the much weaker force of gravity with your legs and jump.

> Similarly, why does The Moon’s gravity affect the tides but won’t, for example, cause a paperclip to slide across a desk?

It does cause a paperclip to move towards it. However, it also makes the desk, and the building you’re in, to move towards it by approximately the same amount, so they stay fixed relative to each other. The displacement distance technically depends on how close the object is to the Moon, but on the small scale that you’re talking about the difference between the desk and the paperclip would be minuscule and unnoticeable.

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