Let's Talk About the Moon Again...

Our Moon orbits us faithfully, as do many other Moons orbit other planets in the Solar System.  These little moons don't fall into their planets because of gravity and inertia!  Moons are so little, why don't they just fly off into the Sun? 

I think you could answer that question....

Gravity depends on mass and distance. 

In the fabric of space, Earth pulls the Moon toward it...not the Sun, because the Sun is too far away to pull the Moon into it.  And we know that the Moon doesn't fall into us because of inertia.  The Moon tries to get away, but Earth's gravity keeps it near.  Old news!

The shape of Earth's gravity field is not perfectly smooth.  Satellites tracking Earth's gravity have created computer images of what this looks like on Earth.  Because there are places where there is more gravity than other places, the Earth looks...bumpy...

Earth's gravity field is constantly changing.  Because water has mass the satellites (GRACE) can detect where water moves and shifts because of the gravitational relationship between the Moon and Earth.  Mountains are red and show where the greatest pull of gravity is, and the ocean basins are blue because they show less gravity.  Cool huh? 

Want to learn more about this?  Click this link:  https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2628/lumps-bumps-and-gravity-space-scales-weigh-planet-earth/

The model below shows how the ocean's tides are affected by the gravity pulling between Earth and the Moon:

This tidal pulling has made life along the ocean, beaches and the continental shelves rich with animals that need water and solid earth to survive. 

So mathematically speaking "the forward movement, or velocity of the moon," keeps the oceans moving and the results of that are fascinating animal life that have learned how to adapt to ocean and land.  This makes our visit to the beach, so much more interesting!