system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why is there a tidal bulge on the side of the Earth facing away from the moon?

There are two high tides per day, but we face the moon only once. Even when there is a new moon and the sun and moon are aligned in the sky, there are still two tides per day. How?
gpt
This problem is best thought of by looking at different reference frames. If we look at the moon’s reference frame, every piece of matter on earth (including water) is being attracted to the moon. The further away you are from the moon, the less gravitational effect there is.

So a piece of matter on the near side is being pulled the most, the center is being pulled a smaller amount, and the opposite side of the moon is being pulled the least.

Now let’s put that into the frame of reference of the earth, which we reduced to “the center” above. We know the center of the earth is not moving with respect to itself, so it is stationary. The moon-side is being pulled more than the earth center, so the water is pulled slightly towards the moon. The non-moon side is not being pulled as much as the center, so in the frame of reference of the center of the earth, it is being pushed away!

Inertia does not really play a large role in terms of two rides per day, as the water’s inertia cannot really be transmitted over landmass as the tides go around the earth.