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From: barmar@mit-eddie.UUCP (Barry Margolin)
Newsgroups: net.games.trivia
Subject: Re: more on the moon debate
Message-ID: <2104@mit-eddie.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 11-Jun-84 22:42:53 EDT
Article-I.D.: mit-eddi.2104
Posted: Mon Jun 11 22:42:53 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 12-Jun-84 23:47:39 EDT
References: <1369@decwrl.UUCP>
Reply-To: barmar@mit-eddie.UUCP (Barry Margolin)
Organization: MIT, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 12

The fact that the moon always keeps the same face to the earth is no
coincidence.  It is the result of a couple of billions of years of tidal
forces.  No planet or satellite is perfectly circular, and after
billions of years the forces on the uneven portions add up and the
revolution speed slows down and the size of the orbit decays.  I seem to
recall that Asimov devoted one or two of his "Fantasy & Science Fiction"
Science columns to this subject several years ago; check in the
anthologies of his articles.
-- 
			Barry Margolin
			ARPA: barmar@MIT-Multics
			UUCP: ..!genrad!mit-eddie!barmar