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Motion of Moon

The Sun's tid...

Question

The Sun's tide-raising power is only half as great as that of the Moon. The direct pull of the Sun on the earth, however, is about $175$ times that of the Moon. Why is it then that the Moon causes larger tides?

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Solution

Tides are not proportional to the strength of gravitational pull. It is due to the difference between the gravity's pull at opposite sides.
The radius of earth is a very small fraction of distance between sun and earth.As a result the difference in the sun's gravitational pull will be lesser when compared to that of moon.

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