how does the moon affect our tides? what would happen if......?

Question

we had more than 1 moon?

Answer 1

Tides are created because the Earth and the moon are attracted to each other, just like magnets are attracted to each other. The moon tries to pull at anything on the Earth to bring it closer. But, the Earth is able to hold onto everything except the water. Since the water is always moving, the Earth cannot hold onto it, and the moon is able to pull at it. Each day, there are two high tides and two low tides. The ocean is constantly moving from high tide to low tide, and then back to high tide. There is about 12 hours and 25 minutes between the two high tides.

Spring Tides
When the moon is full or new, the gravitational pull of the moon and sun are combined. At these times, the high tides are very high and the low tides are very low. This is known as a spring high tide. Spring tides are especially strong tides (they do not have anything to do with the season Spring). They occur when the Earth, the Sun, and the Moon are in a line. The gravitational forces of the Moon and the Sun both contribute to the tides. Spring tides occur during the full moon and the new moon.

Neap Tides
During the moon's quarter phases the sun and moon work at right angles, causing the bulges to cancel each other. The result is a smaller difference between high and low tides and is known as a neap tide. Neap tides are especially weak tides. They occur when the gravitational forces of the Moon and the Sun are perpendicular to one another (with respect to the Earth). Neap tides occur during quarter moons.

If we had a second moon our tide system would be more complicated.

Answer 2

At the University of Miami, psychologist Arnold Lieber and his colleagues decided to test the old belief of full-moon “lunacy” which most scientists had written off as an old wives’ tale. The researchers collected data on homicide in Dade County (Miami) over a period of 15 years — 1,887 murders, to be exact. When they matched the incidence of homicide with the phases of the moon, they found, much to their surprise, that the two rose and fell together, almost infallibly, for the entire 15 years! As the full or the new moon approached, the murder rate rose sharply; it distinctly declined during the first and last quarters of the moon. To find out whether this was just a statistical fluke, the researchers repeated the experiment using murder data from Cuyahoga County in Ohio (Cleveland). Again, the statistics showed that more murders do indeed occur at the full and new moons. Dr. Lieber and his colleagues shouldn’t have been so surprised. An earlier report by the American Institute of Medical Climatology to the Philadelphia Police Department entitled “The Effect of the Full Moon on Human Behavior” found similar results. That report showed that the full moon marks a monthly peak in various kinds of psychotically oriented crimes such as murder, arson, dangerous driving, and kleptomania. People do seem to get a little bit crazier about that time of the month. That’s something most police and hospital workers have known for a long time. Indeed, back in eighteenth-century England, a murderer could plead “lunacy” if the crime was committed during the full moon and get a lighter sentence as a result. Scientists, however, like to have a hard physical model to explain their discoveries, and so far there isn’t a fully accepted one. Dr. Lieber speculates that perhaps the human body, which, like the surface of the earth, is composed of almost 80 percent water, experiences some kind of “biological tides” that affect the emotions. When a person is already on psychologically shaky ground, such a biological tide can push him or her over the edge.

Answer 3

According to Wikipedia, gravity plays a role in our tides, but it is not the only cause. They say that:

"The changing tide produced at a given location on the Earth is the result of the changing positions of the Moon and Sun relative to the Earth coupled with the effects of the rotation of the Earth and the local bathymetry (the underwater equivalent to topography). Though the gravitational force exerted by the Sun on the Earth is almost 200 times stronger than that exerted by the Moon, the tidal force produced by the Moon is about twice as strong as that produced by the Sun. The reason for this is that the tidal force is related not to the strength of a gravitational field, but to its gradient. The field gradient decreases with distance from the source more rapidly than does the field strength; as the Sun is about 400 times further from the Earth than is the Moon, the gradient of the Sun's field, and thus the tidal force produced by the Sun, is weaker."

The effect of a second moon would therefore depend on its size, distance from the earth and location in relation to the other moon. Did you know that we in fact have more than one moon? Unfortunately, Cruithne and J002E3 are too far away to be seen from the ground with the naked eye and to have any effect on the tides. If they were closer, they would either increase the tidal force of the existing moon (i.e. cause the difference between high and low tide to be bigger), reduce it.

Answer 4

The moon has a minor gravitational effect on our planet which results in the changes in the tides.

I would guess that more than one moon (depending on size, number, distance from earth, etc.) would lead to much more complex tide tables and more extreme tides.

Answer 5

the moon has a gravitational pull which causes tides if we had more than 1 moon i think we would be all over the place

Answer 6

The gravitational pull of the moon causes high tides, and I guess if we had more than one moon we could have very high tides indeed at certain times...not too good when hurricanes or tropical storms hit coastal areas.

Answer 7

We do in a sense. The sun's gravity also affects the oceans, so we have solar tides as well as lunar ones. When they pull together, you get a spring tide (big range). When they get out of synch you get a neep tide (small range)

Add another moon, and you get yet another bunch of tides going on. Bigger peaks when they're all in synch. Odd but essentially predictable behaviour all the time.

Answer 8

it affects our tides because the moon has gravity and it lifts it up and what also helps it rise up is the windwhich moves it along

Answer 9

I know one thing, when I'm mooned it affects my mood and 2 moons would darn right tick me off.

Answer 10

the moons gravity pulls the water, if there were two, iTHERE WOULD BE VERY DIFFERENT TIDES