海洋学的潮汐共振是另一篇独立的文章。

对地月系统更为定量的描述请参见条目潮汐加速。

潮汐锁定（或同步自转、受俘自转）发生在重力梯度使天体永远以同一面对着另一个天体；例如，月球永远以同一面朝向着地球。潮汐锁定的天体绕自身的轴旋转一圈要花上绕着同伴公转一圈相同的时间。这种同步自转导致一个半球固定不变的朝向伙伴。通常，在给定的任何时间里，只有卫星会被所环绕的更大天体潮汐锁定，但是如果两个天体的物理性质和质量的差异都不大时，各自都会被对方潮汐锁定，这种情况就像冥王星与凯伦。

这种效应被使用在一些人造卫星的稳定上。

Tidal locking (also called gravitational locking or captured rotation) occurs when the gravitational gradient makes one hemisphere of a revolving astronomical body constantly face the partner body. This effect is known as synchronous rotation. A tidally locked body takes just as long to rotate around its own axis as it does to revolve around its partner. For example, the same side of the Moon always faces the Earth. Usually, only the satellite is tidally locked to the larger body. However, if both the mass difference between the two bodies and the distance between them are relatively small, each may be tidally locked to the other; this is the case for Pluto and Charon. This effect is employed to stabilize some artificial satellites.