Why do most coastal regions have two high and low tides?

Answer 1

Pick a location on the Earth. Pick a location that is exactly on the opposite side of the Earth.

Now, at the first point, imagine the moon or sun directly overhead. This will 'pull' the ocean water toward the moon or earth in a sort of bulge. At the same time, that point on the opposite side of the earth will bulge away from the moon and sun. So this is one high tide on opposite sides of the Earth.

The earth revolves in 12 hours so that point 2 is closest to the moon or sun, and point 1 is farther. You get that same 2 bulges. We have just described two high tides in a day. Similarly, on both cases, the tides half way between the 'bulges' are at low tide, because water is being forced away to make those 2 bulges, and also twice a day.

Answer 2

There is one high tide on the side of the Earth facing the Moon and one on the opposite side, with low tides in between. This is because water on the side closer to the moon is pulled by the Moon's gravity, and the water on the opposite side is flung outward by centrifugal force. At the low tides (in between) centrifugal force and the Moon's gravity cancel out.

Answer 3

Tides are created by the gravitational pull of the moon on the water in the oceans. Water levels are highest on the side of the earth facing the moon, lowest on the two sides that are 90° away from facing the moon, and somewhere in between on the side of the earth facing away from the moon. As the earth rotates, any particular point on the earth will cycle through facing the moon, facing 90° one way, facing away from the moon, and facing 90° the other way, creating high, low, medium high, and low tides, respectively.

Answer 4

The tidal forces produced by the Moon, and to a lesser degree the Sun, cause the oceans to tend to become deeper at the point where the Moon is overhead (obviously), but also at the opposite point (not obvious).

The Moon's gravity is stronger at the point where it is overhead, and weaker at the opposite point, where it is further away. The gravitational force produces acceleration, but the force is exactly balanced by the Earth's acceleration only at the centre of the Earth. Thus at the sub-Moon point, which is closer, there is an excess of gravity, while at the opposite point there is an excess of acceleration. Both effects are equivalent and tend to make the oceans deeper at both places.

Obviously he oceans cannot suddenly become deeper, so what happens is a lot of horizontal movement of water under these forces so that high tide might occur a couple of hours after full moon. In coastal regions there are complex movements of bodies of water so that high tide can occur long after the Moon passes over. But the high tide still occurs twice a day in most places.

Answer 5

moon gravity pulls on different parts of earth the moon gravity causes hightide on the side closes to the moon low tides occurs between the two high tides the force of the moon gravity.

Answer 6

When part of the earth is facing the moon