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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