What Makes the Ocean Tides Happen?

The ocean tides happen because the moon and sun pull on the water like a giant, invisible tug-of-war game.

Imagine you're playing tug-of-war with your friends. When one side pulls hard, the rope moves toward them. The same thing happens with the ocean, when the moon pulls on it, the water moves toward the moon, creating a high tide. On the opposite side of the Earth, there's also a high tide because the water gets pulled away from that spot, leaving it higher than usual.

The moon is like your best friend in this game, it pulls on the ocean more strongly than the sun does. That’s why we have two high tides and two low tides every day, almost like a rhythm you can dance to.

Sometimes the sun joins the moon for the tug-of-war game, when they both pull in the same direction, it makes an even bigger high tide, called a spring tide. When they pull in opposite directions, the tides are smaller, and we call that a neap tide.

So the ocean goes up and down like a happy, dancing wave because of these two big players, the moon and the sun.