What causes the moon to slow the spin of the Earth?

Answer 1

To us, the earth and moon are pretty solid. But the fact is that both bodies are

somewhat 'pliable', like stiff squash balls.

We know that there's a gravitational force between them ... that's the force

that keeps the moon in orbit around the earth, and causes the ocean tides.

Since the earth is somewhat pliable, there's also a "land tide" ... the land

actually rises a few inches in the direction of the moon. So what you have to

visualize is a bulge on the earth and a bulge on the moon, pointing toward

each other, because of the two-way gravitational attraction.

All that squishing and squeezing as the body rotates robs energy from its

rotation, and the rotation slows down. The earth's rotation is slowing down

so that the length of the day is increasing by a few thousandths of a second

every year. And the moon has lost so much rotational energy that the bulge

on it can't even move from one place to another any more. The bulge on the

moon is locked in place, always pointing toward the earth, and never moving.

So the same place on the moon always stays facing the earth. That means that

as the moon swings around the earth, it turns slowly to keep the bulge facing

the earth ... and the periods of rotation and revolutiuoin wind up to be exactly

the same length of time ... 27.32 days.

Answer 2

The gravitational interaction between the Earth and the Moon causes tidal forces on Earth. These tidal forces create friction, leading to a transfer of energy from Earth's rotation to the Moon's orbit, gradually slowing down Earth's rotation and causing the Moon to move farther away from Earth. This phenomenon is known as tidal locking.

Answer 3

Yes.

Another Answer:

The moon rotate on its axis in the same time that it take to revolve around the Earth.

Whereas the Earth rotates on its axis 365 times before making one revolution around the sun.

Answer 4

The moon is tidally locked to Earth - meaning the same side of the moon always faces Earth. As the moon orbits Earth it rotates very slowly, taking about 27.3 days to rotate once, again while facing Earth.

Answer 5

Before we answer, let's make sure we're all talking about the same thing.

"Rotate" refers to spinning in one place, like a rotating Basketball perched on

Michael Jordan's finger. That's the 24-hour motion of the earth that's responsible

for day and night. It has no connection with the earth's distance from the sun.

"Revolve" refers to moving on a track around a central point, like the Indy-500 cars

revolving around the infield. That's the earth's once-a-year motion that's connected with

the cycle of seasons, and in that motion, the speed does depend on the earth's distance

from the sun.

The farther a planet's entire orbit is from the sun, the slower it moves in its entire orbit.

And within each orbit that's not a perfect circle, the planet moves slightly faster past

the points where it's closer to the sun, and slightly slower past the points where that

distance is greater.

The earth is closest to the sun, and moving slightly faster, during the first few days of January.

And we're farthest from the sun, and moving slightly slower, during the first week in July.

Answer 6

15 - 25 millionths of a second every year. That's 0.000015 -- 0.000025 seconds/year.

Answer 7

Tidal friction. Lunar gravity creates friction between earth's oceans and continental coast lines, causing the rotation rate to slow.

Answer 8

if the earth moves to fast we could end up getting dizzy and dying

Answer 9

It isn't slow. In fact it orbits the sun at about an astonishing 100000 km/h, and spin around it's axis at a counter clockwise direction at about 1700 km/h an hour.

Answer 10

an infitessimally small amount per year.