Why does the Moon have a greater influence on Earth's tides than the Sun does?

Answer 1

Fancy boy

Answer 2

Gravitational force depends on distance and mass. The distance between the sun is much greater than the distance between earth and the moon. Therefore, the gravitational pull between the Earth and the moon will effect the tides on Earth.

Answer 3

The Moon has a greater effect on earth's tides than the sun because the moon is much closer to the earth than the sun. The sun's mass is much larger than the moon's, but the moon is a lot closer and tidal forces are generated not by the effect of gravity at a point due to the sun/moon, but by the difference between the effects of gravity on opposite sides of the earth.

As the sun is much further away from the earth than the moon, the difference between the sun's gravitational pull on the near and far sides of the earth (with respect to the sun) is a lot less then the difference between the moon's gravitational pull on the near and far side's of the earth (with respect to the moon). It is because of this bigger difference that the moon has more effect on tides than the sun, despite the fact that the sun has a much bigger gravitational pull on the earth.

This is why the moon has more effect on the tides than the Sun.

Answer 4

Mainly because the sun is about 390 times farther away from Earth than the moon is.

That means that there's about 153,000 times as much force between us and a piece

of mass in the moon as there is between us and the same piece of mass in the sun.

Answer 5

Proximity. The sun is about 390 times as far from Earth as the moon is.

Answer 6

Because Moon is closer to earth then sun is to earth...Since the gravitational force is inversely proportional to the square of the distance, moon exerts greater gravitational pull on earth.

Answer 7

It does but not as much because of the suns distance from the earth. The tides are affected by the gravity of both the sun and moon.