Tidal lock

Posted by bobbapink on Jul 19, 2002 at 07:54
(208.58.228.248)

Re: stumped (paul)

Well,It isn't by chance that it spins just so, it's just plain old physics. http://astro.isi.edu/notes/tides.html>Click here for a fairly good lay explaination.

Here's a snip

This leads one to ask, how did things get to be this way? After all, it would be one big colossal coincidence if the moon's rotation period and revolution period just happened to be the same. It's no coincidence, as it turns out: the moon rotates that slowly because it is tidally locked by the earth.

The moon creates tides on the earth. The oceans can be raised by meters or so because of the gravitational pull of the moon (and to a lesser degree, the sun). The tides not only create better surfing situations, they also slow down the earth.




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