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© Copyright 2003, Jim Loy
This is an animation of the tides caused by the Moon. The red dot is the center of gravity of the Earth-Moon system. The dark blue circle is the Earth, and the light blue ellipse is the tidal bulge of the seas (greatly exaggerated). This bulge is caused by both the gravitational pull of the Moon and the centripetal acceleration on the side opposite the Moon. And so, for most places on Earth, there are two high tides, one when the Moon is high in the sky, and one twelve hours later.
The above Java animation was created with Cinderella (a geometry program).
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