If the moon creates the tides, why don’t any other objects get lifted by its gravitational pull?
In: Planetary Science
Gravity pulls on every kilogram equally. Water moves pretty freely. So, if a 70kg person is pulled a bit by the moon, then the 730000000000kg of water in the pacific is going to be pulled on a *lot more* by the moon. Not because any one bit of water experiences more pull, but because there’s so much more water getting pulled on.
Oh, and unlike water, a big pile of people or dort does not move freely. Water sloshes even with weak forces pushing on it. Dirt just sits there.
And it turns out that “a lot more” is around the scale of a dozen feet, depending on where you are and how much water is there.
Edit: Oh, and if this gets you wondering about our atmosphere as well, then congratulations! You’ve got a keen eye! The atmosphere does experience lunar tides from gravity! They are just relatively small compared to other forces. [Link](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_tide).
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