Kuiper was REALLY excited to run on the beach today. I was equally excited to almost get a picture of him in focus. ?? He runs at over 35 mph (56 kph)!! ?
Have you ever wondered why we see high tides on both sides of the Earth at once, when we only have one moon? ?? It’s because on the other side, the moon is “pushing” the oceans rather than “pulling” them. Say what??
The answer has to do with angles. Near the equator*, the gravitational force between the Earth and the moon is more or less a straight shot. ➡️ However, when you move further from the equator, it starts to angle towards it. ↘️ At the North and South poles, the moon is effectively tugging straight “inward” on the Earth towards its center. ⬇️
Imagine squishing both the top and bottom of a ball. It’ll bulge out, right? The difference in forces across the badillionty water molecules in the oceans is big enough to cause bulges on both the side of the Earth facing the moon and the side directly opposite. A bulge on both sides means that with every 1/4 turn of the Earth the water on your beach starts getting either more bulgey or less bulgey, which is why we see a tide change about every 6 hours.
The sun also affects tides. It’s waayyy bigger than the moon, but it’s also waaaaayyyyy further away from us, so it doesn’t have as much of an effect. When the sun is in line with the moon, like during a full or a new moon, we’ll get slightly bigger tides. When they’re at right angles, like in first and third quarter, we get slightly smaller tides.
Are you as stoked as we are for the SUPER BLUE BLOOD MOON, the most metal (or perhaps most aristocratic) of moons??? It’s coming this Wednesday! Kuiper is asking me for a cape “so he can celebrate properly,” but I’m not sure if he would actually enjoy wearing it. ??
Original post: https://www.instagram.com/p/BehQrrmgtP0/