- #1
tunakdude
- 3
- 0
I'm going nuts trying to figure this out... in textbooks and online, everything i read says that the moon and Earth have a much stronger gravitational force between them than the sun and the earth, and this is why the moon has greater effect on tides than the sun. They all say that this is because the moon, though much less massive than, is much closer to the Earth than the sun.
But... every time i do the calculations using the G(m1)(m2)/r^2, i get that the force between the Sun and the oceans is 8.37 x 10^18 N, and the force between the Moon and the oceans is 4.65 x 10^16 N
so my calculations say that the Sun has a greater force on the oceans than the moon... if i changed out the value of the oceans' mass with the Earth's mass, i still get that the sun has a greater gravitational pull on the Earth than the moon...
so why do all my sources say that the earth-moon gravitational force is greater?
thanks
But... every time i do the calculations using the G(m1)(m2)/r^2, i get that the force between the Sun and the oceans is 8.37 x 10^18 N, and the force between the Moon and the oceans is 4.65 x 10^16 N
so my calculations say that the Sun has a greater force on the oceans than the moon... if i changed out the value of the oceans' mass with the Earth's mass, i still get that the sun has a greater gravitational pull on the Earth than the moon...
so why do all my sources say that the earth-moon gravitational force is greater?
thanks