Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site pyuxa.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!pyuxww!pyuxa!wetcw From: wetcw@pyuxa.UUCP (T C Wheeler) Newsgroups: net.games.trivia Subject: Re: even more on the moon debate Message-ID: <800@pyuxa.UUCP> Date: Wed, 13-Jun-84 14:17:31 EDT Article-I.D.: pyuxa.800 Posted: Wed Jun 13 14:17:31 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 14-Jun-84 00:28:24 EDT References: <1369@decwrl.UUCP>, <2847@alice.UUCP> Organization: Bell Communications Research, Piscataway N.J. Lines: 34 I am truely amazed by the answers to the moon question. Now, for once and all, there is a difference between orbiting and rotating. Suppose the moon were to stop dead in its track. Notwithstanding the effect of such an occurance, what would the moon do? It would NOT rotate. It would present the same face to the earth at all times. Rotating on an axis assumes that from a fixed point in space, the body presents different faces at different times. Imagine that the moon is is at half-moon stage. Imagine further that you can position yourself 1000 miles above the surface of the moon just at the point of night and day. Now, remain in this position for 28 days and observe. What happens? Nothing. Your position relative to the surface reamains the same as does your position in respect to the earth except, the earth goes through 28 revolutions while you are there. You are still 1000 miles above your predetermined spot. The light reaching the moon from the sun has moved over the surface of the moon due to the relationship of the sun to the moon's orbit, not because the moon is rotating. The moon's "day" is a result of its orbit, not its rotation. The question I must ask of the rotating moon people is "Where are the poles or ends of the moon's axis?" "Where is the moon's equator?" If the moon were to be "rotating", then there must be an axis for it to rotate upon. Since all maps and charts of the moon are arbitrary depictions based on nothing more than convention, who discovered the true axis? To sum up, the moon has NO tangential acceleration relative to its surface. It HAS tangential acceleration relative to its orbit. T.C. Wheeler