is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the source. The attraction will be stronger on the side of a body facing the source, and weaker on the side away from the source. The tidal force is proportional to the difference.

Sun, Earth, and Moon

The Sun is about 20 million times the Moon's mass, and acts on the Earth over a distance about 400 times larger than that of the Moon. Because of the cubic dependence on distance, this results in the solar tidal force on the Earth being about half that of the lunar

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