<P> The theory of tides is the application of continuum mechanics to interpret and predict the tidal deformations of planetary and satellite bodies and their atmospheres and oceans (especially Earth's Ocean) under the gravitational loading of another astronomical body or bodies (especially the Moon). </P> <P> In 1609 Johannes Kepler correctly suggested that the gravitation of the Moon causes the tides, basing his argument upon ancient observations and correlations . The influence of the Moon on tides was mentioned in Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos as having derived from ancient observation . </P> <P> In 1616, Galileo Galilei wrote Discourse on the Tides (Discorso sul flusso e il reflusso del mare), in a letter to Cardinal Orsini . In this discourse, he tried to explain the occurrence of the tides as the result of the Earth's rotation and revolution around the Sun . Galileo believed that the oceans moved like water in a large basin: as the basin moves, so does the water . Therefore, as the Earth revolves, the force of the Earth's rotation causes the oceans to "alternately accelerate and retardate". His view on the oscillation and "alternately accelerated and retardated" motion of the Earth's rotation is a "dynamic process" that deviated from the previous dogma, which proposed "a process of expansion and contraction of seawater ." However, Galileo's theory was erroneous . In subsequent centuries, further analysis led to the current tidal physics . Galileo rejected Kepler's explanation of the tides . </P>

When was it discovered that the moon controls the tides