Why are there two tides a day? - Elise Cutts?

There are two tides a day because Earth’s gravity and the Moon’s pull work together like a seesaw on a playground.

Imagine you're sitting on a seesaw with your best friend. When one of you goes up, the other goes down. That's how the ocean works, when the Moon pulls water toward it, that side of Earth gets a high tide, and the opposite side gets a low tide because the water is pulled away.

But wait! The seesaw keeps moving. As Earth turns, different parts of the ocean get pulled by the Moon one after another, just like you and your friend take turns going up and down on the seesaw. That’s why we usually have two high tides and two low tides every day, once in the morning and once at night.

Think of the water as a bouncy ball. When the Moon pulls it, the ball goes up (that’s a high tide). Then, when Earth turns, the ball gets pulled again on the other side (another high tide), while the first side is left with less water, that's a low tide.

It’s not magic, just gravity doing its job, like how your toy car rolls down a hill because of gravity too!