Tidal force the Moon produces a greater tidal force on the Earth than the Sun, even though the Sun exerts a greater gravitational attraction on the Earth than the Moon, because the gradient is less. The Moon produces a greater tidal force on the Earth, than the tidal force of the Earth on the Moon. The distance is the same, but the diameter of the Earth is greater than the diameter of the Moon, resulting in a greater tidal force. What matters is not the total gravitational attraction on a body, but the difference from one side to the other. The greater
Sun and Moon (Middle-earth) Sun and Moon (Middle-earth) The fantasy author J. R. R. Tolkien of Middle-earth fame included Earth's sun and moon for the cosmology of his myths of Arda. These astronomical bodies appear in various versions of "The Silmarillion", a history of a world, called Middle-earth populated by Elves and other fantastic creatures as well as Men. A version of "The Silmarillion", edited by the author's son and literary executor Christopher Tolkien, was posthumously published in 1977. However the Sun and Moon already appear in the author's writings dating from the 1920s. The sun and moon in Tolkien's legendarium were described in