But have local inequities in forces
At center of Earth, moon�s gravitational attraction balances exactly the centripetal acceleration for Earth�s circular path
Elsewhere on Earth, gravitational attraction need not balance centripetal acceleration exactly
- Because all points on Earth trace out circles of equal radii, all points experience equal centripetal acceleration
- Gravitational attraction exerted by moon diminishes with increasing distance according to the inverse square law
If gravitational & centripetal accelerations have different magnitudes at different points, forces cannot be equal