Why does water get effected by gravity by the moon but not us as humans not as much?
In: Earth Science
The force of gravity is inversely proportional to the distance squared between the object (g~1/r²) so if there is only a small change in the distance gravity barely changes at all, but if the change in distance is large – say opposite sides of Earth – there is a significant difference. This difference in attraction of water towards the moon on opposite sides of Earth is what causes the tides – anything as small as a human simply does not experience such a gravity differential.
Edit: Well, the changing of tides is the result of Earth spinning faster on its axis than the Moon is orbiting it, meaning the bulges of water on both sides of Earth inline with the Moon due to the gravity differential change position relative to Earth’s surface.
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