Algodoo

Why do we see only one side of the moon?

That's what I'm going to show now.


It works like this...
The moon used to spin faster.
Because gravity is distance dependent, the pull of the earth on the moon is more on the near side than the far side. Consequent the moon got a little distorted. This distortion can we call a "moon tide". As the "moon tide" went over the moon it made friction. This friction slowed down the moon, until the moon spinned at the same speed that the "moon tide" went over the moon. Because the "moon tide" goes over the moon at the same speed as the moon goes around the earth, will the moon after some time rotate at the same rate that it is rotating around the earth (this means the same moon side will be pointing towards the earth all the time).

_____________________________________________

The moons angular velocity should stop at 0.16 rad/s after a while. I recomend you to increase the simulation speed to 10.


Please rate and comment, thanks