if the moon is responsible for the tide, then answer me this

[NonServitas]

if the moon is responsible for the tide .(ie, its gravitational force is enough to influence the seas on earth) why dont we have 8 mile high tides when the sun comes up? surely we orbit the sun because it has enough gravitational power to influence the entire planet. why not the sea?( not counting spring tides etc that produce a small increase due to the suns position) if the moon has some latent power then why does it orbit us and not vice versa.... this doesnt (at first glance) seem like a religeous or philosophical discussion, but a pro GOD type could argue that it shows the detail included in creation and an agnostic could find the formulae that explained it simply enough for the likes of me to understand.....

[Fear_nam_Beanntan]

As I recall that's one of the arguments used for geocentrism here:

http://www.catholicintl.com/epologetics/geosubmit.asp

[ANDY-J2]

Originally posted by NonServitas
if the moon is responsible for the tide .(ie, its gravitational force is enough to influence the seas on earth) why dont we have 8 mile high tides when the sun comes up?

Because the Sun is approximately 150 million km from Earth whereas the moon is a little under 400 thousand km distant.

[Sharp_Kid]

Andy pretty much hit it on the head, but there is plenty more detail if you wish.
It can be worked out accurately enough using classical mechanics and absolutely spot on using a bit of relativity and quantum mechanics.
If for a moment we look at the Sun and the Earth as a seperate system, you would see that in fact they are coupled and are sort of doing an orbit around each other. However, because the SUn is so much more massive than the Earth, it appears that the Sun's position is entirely unaffected by the Earth.
The opposite can be said of the Moon's orbit.
However, the close proximity of the Moon to the Earth means that it's mass has a much stronger local effect.

This close proximity also makes the difference in distance from the Moon to the near side of the Earth and the distance from the Moon to the far side of the Earth significant, whereas that difference is negligable when considering the distance between the Earth and the Sun.

[khaledx76]

I think, it's more of like this:

A- Sun and Earth:

This might resemble the reaction of someone's body while traveling in car, train, or plain. The whole body becomes part of that system, and it will apply its forces (i.e. moment of inertia) on all parts of the body equally (no difference between head, hair, legs, etc). That is to say: if the vehicle stops all of a sudden, the whole body gets affected. That how the sun sees the earth: as one piece with all forces applied equally.

B- Moon and Earth:

this might resemble as if you are standing facing the wind. Your hair, due to its nature and flexibility, would wave and respond to the wind. However, your body stands still due to its more solid nature.

Logical??