Have you noticed that we only see one side of the Moon? Do you know why?

Question

Have you noticed that we only see one side of the Moon? Do you know why?

Answer 1

We see the same face of the moon because the moon rotates once for each orbit it takes around the earth.

Answer 2

The moon is tidally locked with earth, meaning it *is* rotating, but it's rotating in such a way that  one side always faces earth. You can imagine this by taking a cue ball (as earth) and an 8-ball and rotating the 8-ball around the cue ball in such a way that the "8" always faces the cue ball. You'll notice that indeed it rotates as it goes around, but only once per revolution!

It isn't just a coincidence that the moon is tidally locked, it's a result of the physics of the earth and the moon's tidal forces, proximity, and mass. Many other objects in the universe are also tidally locked, sometimes both objects are tidally locked to one another (i.e., the same side of both objects always faces the other!)

Answer 3

The moon orbits the Earth in about 29 days.  It also rotates once on its axis in the same amount of time - its called tidal locking.  Its a little complicated to type in here, but there is lots of information on wikipedia on "tida locking").

Basically, the moon rotates just fast enough to "keep up" with its orbit around the Earth so it always keeps one side facing us.

Answer 4

its called google or yahoo space,

look it up sometime

Answer 5

The moon only rotates one time in the month.

Answer 6

yes we do only see one side of the moon. simple explanation why: the moon rotates on its axis at the same rate in which it orbits the earth. it takes about 29.5 for moon to orbit the earth, and it also takes about 29.5 days for the moon to revolve completely.

Answer 7

As every fourth grader (at least of my generation) is or was taught, the moon revolves once on its axis for every orbit around the earth. Thus, the same side of the moon is seen from earth at all times.

Answer 8

Because the moon does not rotate. But I'm pretty sure the other side looks almost the same as the one we see.

Answer 9

The Moon is tidally locked in rotation with Earth. That means gravity acting through the tides has caused the rotation period of the Moon to be equal to its revolution period.

Answer 10

Because the moon rotates once on its axis every 27.3 days. It also orbits the earth once every 27.3 days (the sidereal month) so it always turns the same face towards us. Actually, we can see about 59% of the moon's surface because its orbital speed varies slightly so that sometimes we can see round the edge. Also its rotational axis is inclined at about 7 degrees to the perpendicular to its orbit, so we can alternately see the north and south poles during the month.

29.5 days is the synodic period (new moon to new moon) which is not its true orbital period. The synodic period is the time taken for it to "catch up" with the sun due to the earth's orbital motion.

Answer 11

http://science.howstuffworks.com/dark-si...