Ebb and flow

[Kevin_Hall]

I may have lost my mind, but I have no clue about how the ebb and flow work. Well, I understand that Moon attracts water, which is more elastic than the earth. Hump A on the top of Earth is formed. But how does hump B on the opposite side form?

[Chris Peterson]

I may have lost my mind, but I have no clue about how the ebb and flow work. Well, I understand that Moon attracts water, which is more elastic than the earth. Hump A on the top of Earth is formed. But how does hump B on the opposite side form?

The Moon does not "attract water" any differently than it attracts rock. The water is more deformable, so it forms a kind of oblate sphereoid (which it would do it there was only water, and no earth at all). The solid(ish), much less deformed body of the planet is centered in this deformed water body.

[neufer]

Simplified schematic of only the lunar portion of Earth's tides, showing (exaggerated) high tides at the sublunar point and its antipode for the hypothetical case of an ocean of constant depth without land. Solar tides not shown.

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I may have lost my mind, but I have no clue about how the ebb and flow work. Well, I understand that Moon attracts water, which is more elastic than the earth. Hump A on the top of Earth is formed. But how does hump B on the opposite side form?

• "Hump A" is pulled up by the nearness of the sublunar Moon.
  
  "Hump B" is pushed away by centrifugal force of Earth swinging around the Moon.

Both forces are maximum when the Moon is at zenith: "on the top of Earth";
however, the delayed F=ma affect causes both "Humps" to occur at a later time in Earth's rotation.