“The law of gravitation explains many phenomena not previously understood. For example, the pull of the moon on the earth causes the tides, hitherto mysterious. The moon pulls the water up under it and makes the tides—people had thought of that before, but they were not as clever as Newton, and so they thought there ought to be only one tide during the day. The reasoning was that the moon pulls the water up under it, making a high tide and a low tide, and since the earth spins underneath, that makes the tide at one station go up and down every 24 hours. Actually the tide goes up and down in 12 hours.”
This is, of course, incorrect. Although Feynman eschewed giving beginners information so oversimplified that it’s wrong (he called it “cheating”, this is one of the (I think) rare cases where he didn’t practice what he preached.
This is, of course, incorrect. Although Feynman eschewed giving beginners information so oversimplified that it’s wrong (he called it “cheating”, this is one of the (I think) rare cases where he didn’t practice what he preached.
For the correct explanation of tides and why there’s actually no tidal bulge, see the question to this Physics SE answer: https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/121830/does-eart...