2 Answers

Our tides are controlled by both the moon and the sun and their relative positions to one another. The moon is on average 225,000-255,000 miles from the Earth, but the Sun is much further away. But what is weird is that the moon's gravity and Suns gravity are just about the same on the surface of the earth. For that reason, it is actually possible to figure out the mass of the Sun. Sir Isaac Newton did just that in 1686 with his landmark study of Gravity's pull on the tides. The gravity, he said, is inversely proportional to the square of the distances between the planets. The rest of his book explains the math and how to figure it all out for yourself. Incidentally, the guy who paid to publish the book for the Royal Society of London, was none other than Newton's famous friend, Edmond Halley - yes boys and girls, that Halley. The guy wikipedia says is best known for computing the orbit of the eponymous Halley's Comet. But they got it wrong - again. Halley could not do the math. Instead, he took all the measurements and gave them to his buddy, Isaac Newton to figure out what the orbit would be on a different comet, which turned out to be 517 years. But Halley then looked throughout the observatory records and found the comet named after him, and had Newton double check the figures. Back in those days, nobody new comets coming from one direction were the same ones going in the other direct a couple months later. The argument was, once they figured that out, was what was the cause of the change in the direction. After all, Newton himself, stealing from Kepler's planetary motions, stated everything travels in straight lines unless some outside force acts upon it. Two arguments came into being, the sun was magnetic, or the sun had gravity. Newton said thought the sun was hot, and if the comets were loadstones (natural magnets), the loadstones would become demagnetized as they got close, just like loadstones on earth when melted. Others said the Sun was cold because when you climb up a mountain to get closer to the Sun it gets cold. They, at the time also thought one set of physical rules applied on the earth and another in space, but Newton's true genius was to come up with a single theory about gravity that worked everywhere, not just on Earth with a separate one in space. His theory, and Kepler's offset oval like rotation of the planets helped move our understanding of gravitational pull, planet movements, comets with Halley, and a multitude of math using Calculus, which Newton and another mathematician form Germany are credited. As far as the 1/6 gravity of the moon, look at the size of the moon and compare it to the Earth and you should see the sizes and gravity, when plugged into Newton's Inverse Square Law making perfect sense. As far as the heavy boots? Two reasons. The boots were part of a suit that had to withstand huge temperature changes and the lack of atmosphere while not blowing up like a balloon too. If you check NASA.Gov and look into the archives, NASA just didn't have the technology to make light weight boots that could withstand the extremes. But I like the other guys answer too because it sounds good, even if not completely right. Take care and remember to wave your towel if you go hitch hiking, because the UFO's can't see a thumb from space - Hitch Hiker's Guide To the Galaxy.

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