What is the approximate period of time it takes for the moon to orbit earth once?

Answer 1

Great question - The moon goes around the earth in 27.3 days, or 27 days 7 hours 43 minutes, on average. Note that this is not the same as the time between two successive full moons, which is about 29.5 days.

Answer 2

27.3 days. The lunar cycle of full moon to full moon is 2.5 days longer, because while the Moon is orbiting the Earth, the Earth is going along in its orbit around the Sun. So it takes the Moon another 2 1/2 days to get back into the same relative position.

Answer 3

A bit over 27 days. So why is the full moon to full moon time more like 29.5 days? Because the full to full cycle depends on the relative positions between the Earth, Moon and Sun - and the Earth keeps moving while the Moon is orbiting the Earth.

So it takes an extra 2 days for the Moon to "catch up" after going all the way around the Earth once.

Answer 4

Technically, that period of time is about 27.32 days. The period of the complete cycle of the moon's

phases is a bit longer ... about 29.53 days.

The cycle of phases is the basis for the "month" unit in most cultural, ethnic, and religious calendars.

Answer 5

About the same time as the Moon. The period of the orbit is determined by the distance from the primary and the mass of the primary. (In this case, the "primary object" is the Earth itself.) The mass of the secondary object, the one doing the orbiting - in this case, the apple or the Moon - is irrelevant.

Answer 6

A little less than 28 days. In fact, this is what long ago determined the length of a moon-th, that is, month.

Answer 7

Approximately 27.32 days.