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You are here: Home / Science / Why Are the High Tides Higher When the Moon Is Full?

Why Are the High Tides Higher When the Moon Is Full?

May 19, 2020 by Karen Hill

It’s easy to fool yourself into thinking that the moon is bigger when it’s full, and that it therefore pulls on the oceans more strongly to make higher tides.

But the moon is always the same size and distance away as it circles Earth. It is just lit up differently by the sun at different times in its journey. That’s why it looks to us like a whole disk (a full moon), a partial disk (a semicircle or a crescent) or no disk at all (a new moon). In other words, it goes through phases.

When the moon, sun and Earth happen to be all lined up, we see either a full moon or a new moon. The moon looks full when Earth is in the middle, between the moon and the sun. Think of it as if we are sitting in Theater Earth, with the Man in the Moon on the stage and Spotlight Sun behind us.

We’ll see the full face of the Man in the Moon. On the other hand, when the moon circles around behind us Earthlings, getting between us and the Spotlight Sun (turn around in your theater seat and look at the moon behind you) we see the moon as a darkened disk, that is, a new moon.

In either of these lined-up arrangements, full moon or new moon, the sun’s and moon’s gravitational forces are pulling along the same line of direction, and they reinforce each other to produce an extra-high tide: a “spring tide.”

The name has nothing to do with the spring season; it’s called that because it “springs up” twice in every moon cycle: about every two weeks.

Related Facts

  • What Causes the Ocean Tides and Why Are There Two High Tides Every Day?
  • How Does the Moon Always Keep the Same Face Toward Earth?
  • Why Are There Two High Tides and Two Low Tides Every Day and What Causes Ocean Tides On Earth?
  • Why Is There a Simultaneous High Tide On Both Sides of the Earth and What Causes the Tide Generating Force?
  • What Causes the Phases Of the Moon and What Are the Different Phases Of the Moon Called?
  • Why Is the Moon So Much Bigger When It’s Rising and Setting On the Horizon?

Filed Under: Science

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

Previous Post: « What Causes the Ocean Tides and Why Are There Two High Tides Every Day?
Next Post: How Often Is Once In a Blue Moon and Does It Have Anything To Do With the Real Moon? »

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