Jonathan Silverlight wrote:

they are caused by two bodies dragging water around a body with various
irregularly shaped land masses.
One of the most entertaining accounts of this I know of is Fritz
Lieber's novel "The Wanderer", where the situation is complicated by the
appearance of an Earth-mass body near the Moon prompting one character
to exclaim "At last, a really challenging example of the three-body
problem"

When you use emoticons it means the joke needs explaining. When the
joke needs...
Ah never mind. Never mind the drivel, can you have a stab at explaining
the mechanics?

I want to know how the moon can drag a particle up from the earth
considering the masses and distances involved. And why if it works on
volumes with very little gravity of their own, it doesn't have the same
effect on more imposing particulate.

Besides which, if the three body problem is in a constant state of flux
as one planet invokes movement on another, how does the distant planet
affect subdivisions of the other.

And another thing: If the moon can raise water on the earth, why can't
the earth raise sand on the moon? IIRC a crystal of silicon dioxide or
whatever sand is, is some 3 times more dense than water but the moon's
gravity is 1/6th.

I would have thought that on the theory most here are defending
(without the benefit of a schoolboy's primer may I add) the moon would
have tidal mountains and hills.