Answer :
The moon, despite being significantly smaller than the sun, has a greater influence on Earth's tides primarily due to its proximity to our planet. Here’s a breakdown of the reasons:
Proximity: The moon is much closer to Earth compared to the sun. The moon is about 384,400 km (about 238,855 miles) away from Earth, whereas the sun is about 150 million km (about 93 million miles) away. Gravitational force decreases with the square of the distance between two objects, as stated by the inverse square law of gravitation. Therefore, even though the sun is much more massive, the moon’s proximity means its gravitational pull on Earth’s oceans is stronger.
Gravitational Pull and Tidal Forces: Tides are caused not just by the gravitational pull itself but by the difference in gravitational pull across Earth (the tidal force). This difference is more pronounced with the moon due to its closeness. The moon’s gravitational force is stronger on the side of Earth nearest to the moon and weaker on the opposite side, creating the bulges in Earth’s oceans that are perceived as high tides.
Relative Effects: Although the sun's gravitational pull on Earth is about 178 times stronger than that of the moon, the sun’s tidal force on Earth is about half as strong as that of the moon. This difference in tidal force is due to the significantly greater distance of the sun from Earth compared to the moon.
Thus, the moon plays a more dominant role in creating tides on Earth compared to the sun due to its closer proximity and the resulting tidal forces being more pronounced.
