Doug Dennis, age 11, of Yuma  Arizona

How does the moon make the tides?

The force of gravitation is exerted by every heavenly body, large or small, Its pulling power reaches out in all directions from the center of gravity in the very middle of the heavenly body. It grows weaker the further it gets from this center.. The greater the mass of a heavenly body, the greater the pull of its gravity.

The earth exerts a terrific pull over the smaller moon. It holds the smallish satellite in an orbit and refuses to let it escape. But the moon pulls back at the earth with all the might of its smaller gravity,

As it passes over the ocean, it pulls up a great pile of water. Another pile of water lags behind and heaps up on the opposite side of the earth. Those are the two high tides that travel with the moon around and around the earth, Water is pulled away from the area between them to form the low tides. The moon does all this tidal work with the pull of its gravity