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The moon completes an orbital revolution of the earth once every 27.32 days.

That's shorter than any calendar "month".

The moon displays a complete cycle of its "phases" once every 29.53 days.

That's shorter than 11 of the 12 present calendar "months" although, at one

time, it was the basis for establishing the months.

The reason there's a difference between the two numbers is that the Earth moves far enough in that time for its position relative to the Sun to shift noticeably. While the Moon returns to the same position relative to the Earth in a little over 27 days, it takes another 2 days or so for it to return to the same position relative to the Earth-Sun axis.

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14y ago

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