Empirical Earth · Gravity, Buoyancy & the Air
Tides — two bulges a day from a force that falls off as 1/r³
The claim
“Tides aren’t from the Moon — its gravity is too weak — and gravity isn’t real anyway.”
What is measured
The Moon raises tides about twice as strongly as the Sun because tidal pull scales as 1/distance³. That cubed law is one a real, distant Moon obeys.
What would show this is wrong
a tidal force not scaling as 1/r³, the Sun out-pulling the Moon instead of the reverse ~2:1, or a Moon that is not receding and a day-length that is not slowly growing.
Sources
- Tides & the tidal force. Tides arise from the difference in the Moon's (and Sun's) gravity across Earth's diameter, producing two bulges; the tidal force falls off as 1/r³, so the nearer Moo link
- Spring and neap tides, and the Sun’s tidal contribution. The Sun raises a tide about 46% as strong as the Moon’s; at new and full moon the two add (spring tides, largest range) and at the qu link
- Tides follow the lunar day. NOAA explains that coastal areas see two high and two low tides every lunar (tidal) day of 24 hours 50 minutes — about 50 minutes longer than the solar day becaus link
- Why real tides aren’t a simple bulge. Equilibrium theory predicts two equal daily tides; dynamic theory adds continents, depth, resonance and the Coriolis effect, so the tide rotates around link
- The Moon’s recession, measured by laser. Lunar Laser Ranging times laser pulses bounced off the retroreflectors left by Apollo 11/14/15 (and the Lunokhod rovers), showing the Moon recedes ~3 link
- A lengthening day, written in rock and coral. Tidal braking adds roughly 1.7–2.3 ms to the day per century; tidal rhythmites and fossil-coral growth bands independently record ~400 days per link
- Do the Great Lakes have tides? The National Ocean Service reports a true semi-diurnal tide on the Great Lakes whose largest (spring) tide is less than five centimeters, normally masked by wi link
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