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Home  Education  Currents  Tidal Currents 1
  << Back The relationship between the masses of the Earth, moon and sun and  their distances to each other play a critical role in affecting the  Earth's tides. Although the sun is 27 million times more massive than  the moon, it is 390 times further away from the Earth than the moon.  Tidal generating forces vary inversely as the cube of the distance from  the tide-generating object. This means that the sun’s tidal generating  force is reduced by 3903 (about 59 million times) compared to the  tide-generating force of the moon. Therefore, the sun’s tide-generating  force is about half that of the moon, and the moon is the dominant  force affecting the Earth’s tides and the currents they produce.


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