tidal force

American  

noun

1. the gravitational pull exerted by a celestial body that raises the tides on another body within the gravitational field, dependent on the varying distance between the bodies.

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tidal force Scientific  

1. A secondary effect of the gravitational forces between two objects orbiting each other, such as the Earth and the Moon, that tends to elongate each body along the axis of a line connecting their centers. Tidal forces are responsible for the fluctuation of the tides as well as for the synchronous rotation of certain moons as they orbit their planets.

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Example Sentences

Because of its distance, Venus exerts the largest tidal force on Earth, although it’s just a small fraction compared with our moon.

From Washington Post • Jun. 7, 2022

A tidal force results from the unequal gravitational pull on two sides of a body.

From Textbooks • Oct. 13, 2016

Bodies surged forward with the tidal force of a marathon start while the actor sat on a low stage with a paralytic look about him.

From Salon • May 30, 2015

The change in the force of the black hole’s gravity across a planet’s diameter is very large, creating a tidal force that stretches the planet.

From Slate • Nov. 6, 2014

A ship is wind-rode when the wind overcomes an opposite tidal force, and she rides head to wind.

From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Belcher, Edward, Sir