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From: mwm@ea.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.games.trivia
Subject: Re: more on the moon debate - (nf)
Message-ID: <4000003@ea.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 14-Jun-84 13:35:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: ea.4000003
Posted: Thu Jun 14 13:35:00 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 22-Jun-84 04:01:30 EDT
References: <1369@decwrl.UUCP>
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Nf-ID: #R:decwrl:-136900:ea:4000003:000:1281
Nf-From: ea!mwm    Jun 14 12:35:00 1984

#R:decwrl:-136900:ea:4000003:000:1281
ea!mwm    Jun 14 12:35:00 1984

/***** ea:net.games.triv / decwrl!kinmonth / 10:44 pm  Jun 12, 1984 */
>It would seem that all free-floating object must rotate to some degree, no
>matter how slowly.  The odds that something could be floating around
>prefectly aligned with the universe must be hovering near zero.

"Perfectly aligned with the universe?" Huh? I'm not sure what you mean by
"universe." How about "perfectly aligned with anything relatively at rest
to you?" The probability of that is not "near zero", it *is* zero. You have
exactly one chance in Aleph-null, which is none at all.

>The only explaination I can think of is that the side of the moon that
>always faces the Earth is more dense (perhaps much more?) than the other
>side. Thus the graviational attraction of this side eventually caused the
>moon's rotation to stabalize with the "heavy" side towards the Earth. If
>this were true, note that a rotating moon would appear to wobble. We can't
>observe this from earth however because we don't see the moon rotating; we
>always see the same side.

Your first hypotheses is correct, including the moons wobble. We *do*
observe the moon wobbling from the earth, something like 10 degrees each
way. We also pick up a little of the "dark" side of the moon do to the
north-south wobble.