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Earth-Moon System
Name: emily
Status: student
Age: 9
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 1999 - 2000
Question:
Why does the moon rotate around the earth? Why doesn't the earth rotate around the moon? Wouldn't it get the same results?
Replies:
Both the earth and the moon rotate around the center of mass of the
earth-moon system. This is located inside the earth, because the earth is
so much more massive than the moon.
Barrans
Emily,
In your science class you probably learned that the earth revolves around
the sun. That is because the sun is much larger and we are held in place
through attraction to the sun. In the same way, the moon is much smaller
than the earth. The moon is held in place due to the gravitational pull of
the earth. Another way to say this is that the moon is not mass ive enough
to make the earth rotate around it, the opposite is true.
Your question is similar to asking why a dogs tail does not wag the dog.
You know, of course, that the dog wags the tail. :)
Thanks for using NEWTON!!
Ric Rupnik
The Earth and the moon orbit each other. More precisely, they both
orbit the center of mass of the earth-moon system. Since the earth is
much more massive than the moon, the center of mass is much nearer the
earth.
Tim Mooney
The moon seems to rotate about us, because we are the ones doing the looking.
if you were standing on the moon, yes it would seem like the earth is rotating
about the moon. But if you were standing somewhere else, say on the sun, it
would seem like both the earth AND the moon are rotating around the sun, and
also more or less around each other, like two people doing a dance, holding on
to each other, while they both danced around the entire dance floor.
S. Ross
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Update: June 2012
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