TIDALFORCE

Tidal force

The tidal force is a secondary effect of the force of gravity and is responsible for the tides. It arises because the gravitational force exerted by one body on another is not constant across its diameter. The nearest side is attracted more strongly than the farthest side. Thus, the tidal force is differential. Consider the gravitational attraction of the moon on the oceans nearest the moon, the solid earth and the oceans farthest from the moon. There is a mutual attraction between the moon and the solid earth which can be considered to act on its centre of mass. However, the near oceans are more strongly attracted and, since they are fluid, they approach the moon ...

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tidal force

Noun

  1. any of various gravitational forces acting on a body caused by variation in the distance between it and a source of a gravitational field; such forces due to the Moon are responsible for tides


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: tidal force
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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