What causes tidal bulge?

The moon’s gravity pulls on Earth, making the ocean water stretch out like a balloon being tugged.

Imagine you're holding two balloons, one in each hand. When you pull them apart, they get longer and thinner. That's what happens with Earth and the oceans: the moon’s gravity acts like your hand pulling, stretching the ocean into a big, soft bulge on the side facing the moon.

Even though we see one bulge from the moon’s pull, there's actually another bulge on the opposite side of Earth, too. It's like when you're holding two balloons and pull them apart, both sides get stretched out!

This happens because Earth is being pulled toward the moon, but the water on the far side isn’t being pulled away from Earth, it’s being left behind, like a slinky that stretches out as one end moves forward.

So, when Earth turns, different parts of the ocean get hit by these bulges, and that's why we have high tides!