How Does the Moon Influence Earth's Tides?

[Farcry25]

Homework Statement

Some people say that the tides on Earth are caused by the pull of the moon. Let us investigate whether this is true.

(a) Determine the forces that the moon and the sun exert on a mass, m, of water on Earth. Your answer will be in terms of m with units of N.


(c) Determine the difference in force exerted by the moon on the water at the near surface and the water at the far surface (on the opposite side of Earth), as illustrated in Figure 8-13.Again, your answer will be in terms of m with units of N.

(d) Determine the difference in force exerted by the sun on water at the near surface and water at the far surface (on the opposite side of Earth).


(f) Why is the statement that the tides are due to the pull of the moon misleading? Make a correct statement to explain how the moon causes tides on Earth.

figure 8-13 here
http://img361.imageshack.us/img361/2707/1111111111bs9.th.gif

Homework Equations

Idk where to start or how to do this can anyone just explain to me how to solve it please don't give me the answer bc i actually got to learn how to solve this types of problems

 

[mgb_phys]

The force of gravity is explained here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton's_law_of_universal_gravitation

Tides are a little tricky - there are a couple of posts in this thread explaining tides.
wiki also has a good article.