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jaa101 t1_j2bjhrg wrote

Adding to the other comments, tidal forces follow an inverse cube law, not an inverse square law. The reason is that they're caused by differences in gravity, not just gravity itself.

As evidence of the cube law, we feel tides from both the moon and the sun, but those due to the moon are about twice as strong. The sun is almost 400 times farther away than the moon but its mass is 27 million times greater, i.e., roughly half of 400^(3).

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