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Would you ever ask this question?

posted 9 years ago by Huge_Ack_Man
7 replies | jump to latest

On the podcast "Stuff You Should Know" (with their political biases as bonuses) one of the guys (Josh or Chuck I'm not sure) asked something like "is it a coincidence that one rotation of the Moon is exactly the same as the time it takes for it to revolve around Earth? (which results in one side always facing us Earthlings)

And the other said yeah, and they both agreed that it was.

How would you answer that?

I'm pretty sure I know from common sense why it always faces us, it's because the Moon isn't balanced and the gravitational pull of the Earth holds the one side in our direction. And if I'm wrong I'll eat my hat.

If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed. If you do...you are misinformed---Mark Twain

[–] marsexplorer 9 years ago

It is not coincidence, it is caused by the gravitational interaction between the Earth and the Moon, it is called tidal locking. This is the case with all major moons in our solar system.

[–] Huge_Ack_Man 9 years ago

I didn't say it was.

Thanks for giving me the name of what it's called.

If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed. If you do...you are misinformed---Mark Twain

[–] marsexplorer 9 years ago

You misunderstood me, I was referring to the podcasters agreeing it was coincidence.

[–] Huge_Ack_Man 9 years ago

OK.

Yeah they're not very bright, they did a podcast on the Berlin Wall on I got the impression they thought the wall was there to keep people in West Berlin instead of out. At least that's how they talked.

I'm sure they were just confused and not necessarily giving the story a pro-communist slant like some people would be prone to do.

If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed. If you do...you are misinformed---Mark Twain

[–] poem 9 years ago

Yes, the moon is tidally locked.

If there was enough time, earth would eventually be tidally locked to the moon, too. However the sun will expire before that point, and earth will at that time fall into the sun.

---
A gentleman will not insult me, and no man not a gentleman can insult me.

[–] koskiewicz 8 years ago

...it's all green cheese anyway...

[–] President_Ackbar_Impeached 8 years ago

Yum!