Why moon changes it's position from west to east night by noght?

Question

if you wanna describe the relation b/w earth and moon rotation as a comprehensive answer for an introductory astonomy course what do you respond ?

Answer 1

Actually the orbital period is 27.3 days - but the time between ful moons is 29.5 days.

However, Brant it correct, the moon orbits the earth in ~30 days so it should have moved through ~1/30 of a full circle every day.

It's apparent motion in one night is hard to see because altough it will actually move ~6deg, it also appears to move through 180 degrees from rise to set because of Earth's rotation.

Answer 2

The moon orbits the earth, from west to east, one time around, every 29.5 days.  This means it is moving across the sky a little bit slower than the stars and the sun.  So each day, it will appear about 12 degrees farther west than it did at the same time the day before.  If you ever see it next to a bright star or planet, you can notice its movement eastward during the course of an evening.  Of course, during lunar eclipses, this movement is highlighted by the changing of the earth's shadow across the moon's surface.