why deos the tide come in and out and what causes this to happen?

Answer 1

It is the gravitational pull of the moon.

Answer 2

Tides are a result of the gravitational pulls of the sun and the moon!

as the earth rotates, moves around the sun and the moon moves around the sun the gravitational forces will have different effects.

High and low tides that occur daily are the direct effect of the earth rotating and the moon moving about the earth. Where the moon is closer to the far coast it will be a low tide at the near coast, whereas when the moon is nearest to the near coast there will be a high tide at the near coast, and vice versa.

Spring and Neap tides occur when the sun's gravitational pull adds to the moon's gravitational pull creating an exceedingly low and high tide. When the two forces are working against each other the high and low tides are very slightly apart.

Answer 3

The moon exerts gravity on the earth, to the point of pulling water up in the direction where the moon is (and also, because of symmetry, in the exact other side of the earth as well; meanwhile the tide is low at 90 degree to the moon direction). Since the earth spins around, the area of high tide changes during the day, hence every 6 hours or so, you go from high tide to low tide (not exactly 6 hours, because the moon is also rotating around the earth in about 29 days).

Answer 4

As the moon orbits the earth it pulls the mass of water its above closer to the moon, which would cause a low tide in the surrounding areas, and by the time the moon is on the other side of the earth there would be no forces close enough to the water and it would then "smooth" out causing a high tide in the surrounding areas.

Answer 5

Tides, the periodic rise and fall of large bodies of water, result from the gravitational effect of the moon. As the moon rotates around the earth its gravity effectively pulls the oceans water towards it. This causes the water bulge around the earth in the direction of the moon. A similar bulge is created on the opposite side of the earth, as the earth itself is being pulled towards the moon. Consequently high and low tides are directly linked to the position of the moon. As the moon passes over a passific region the bulge is created, and likewise on the opposite side of the world, therefore water levels rise in those areas - high tide. In contrast, in regions at a 90 degree angle to the moons location water is being pulled away towards the moon so water levels fall in those areas - low tide. Because the earth rotates on its own axis once every 24 hours there are 2 high tides each day, when the moon passes overhead and when it is on the opposite side of the world. Likewise there are 2 corresponding low tides. These are, very approximatley, every 6 hours. Obviously the Sun exerts a gravitational effect on the earth also, though its effect on tides is less as the moon is much closer. However Spring tides (very high tides) are the result of the moon, earth and sun being in alignment. In this instance the gravitaional pull of both the sun and moon combine to create a greater pull, a larger bulge and therefore higher tides.

Answer 6

The moon...but interestingly the moon over the millenia has been drifting further and further away from planet earth....so tides in the past were more extreme than they are now...and in the far future we have no tides at all....as the moon will totally drift away and find its own course around the sun.....the question then becomes...if the moon does this...will it stop being a moon and bwecome a planet? Is it infact big enough to be considered a planet?

Answer 7

Its caused by the gravitational pull of the moon and sun on the earth. Although the suns gravitational pull on the earth is approximatley 200 times stronger than that of the moon, the moon still provides twice as much tidal force than the sun. the reason for this is the gradient of the pull. Because the sun is 400 times further away from the earth than the moon, its gradient is less and so is its force on the earth.

Answer 8

it's the position of the earth,relatively to the moon and the sun.that's why the tide can be high,higher or the highest (when the force of gravity of moon and sun are maximum in the other side of earth,where ,of course ,the tide is the lowest)

Answer 9

The tide is influenced by the moon and the rotation of the earth.

Answer 10

Is it not interesting how the moon affect such a large body of water like that? Check out this site -- so many interesting things.

http://www.clupeid.demon.co.uk/tides/simple.html

http://school.discovery.com/homeworkhelp/bjpinchbeck/bjscience.html

Answer 11

The sun (somewhat) and the moon's gravity "sucks" the water to one end of the planet, creating a slight bulge on one end, which means the water level on the other side of the planet goes down.