How Earth’s Tides Are Impacted by Both Sun and Moon

In an astralTED-Edlesson written by Elise Cutts and animated by Remi Cans of Atypicalist, narrator Alexandra Panzer explains how the tides on Earth are impacted both by the sun and the moon, with the highest tides being at a full moon and lesser at half-moon.

Isaac Newton deciphered the laws of gravity and offered the first gravitational explanation of tides. As Newton correctly identified, tides are choreographed by the motions of celestial objects, and Earth's tides in particular are mostly driven by the Moon. ,,,But as Newton recognized ...our Sun tugs the tides, too. In fact, the Sun is why tidal strength varies with the phases of the Moon. Lunar phases coincide with different gravitational lineups of the Moon, Sun, and Earth.

There is also good explanation why there are two high tides a day.

The attractive force of gravity gets weaker with distance, so the Moon's gravity tugs strongest on the side of the Earth that faces it. There, gravity pulls the oceans up into what's called a tidal bulge. Yet at the same time, another tidal bulge forms on the planet's opposite side. ...Within that orbit, the Earth rotates once a day, moving points on its surface in and out of these bulges. This results in two daily high tides when areas are inside each bulge, and two daily low tides when places are between them.