If the moon has a gravetatilnal pull on the earth (tides) then why does it orbit the earth not the earth orbit it?
by 
miss tinker
ANSWERS: 5
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Everything has a gravitational pull on everything else as long as the things are within each other's gravitational field. The moon has a gravitational effect on earth but earth has a gravitational effect on the moon as well, but since the earth is much larger in mass it's gravitational pull far exceeds that of the moon, therefore the moon orbits earth and not the other way around.
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For the same reason the Earth orbits the Sun. The Sun is bigger than the Earth, the Earth is bigger than the Moon. The smaller object (by mass) will allways orbit the larger one.
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We do technically orbit it, to some degree. The sun has an orbit pattern caused by our gravity, just as we have one caused by the moon. It's just not as noticeable due to the variation in gravity.
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As is the case in all orbital system, the earth an the moon orbit their common centre of gravity. However, the mass of the Earth is so much greater than the mass of the moon that the centre of gravity is actually inside the Earth. So that it is an easy shorthand to say the moon orbits the earth. An outside observer would notice that the Earth twitches slightly as the moon orbits it.
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The earth has 81 times the mass of the moon and the moon is roughly 243,000 miles away from the earth. Therefore the center of gravity of the two-body system should be 1/81 of the distance between the earth's and the moon's centers. 1/81 of 243,000 is 3,000, so both Earth and Moon orbit around a spot that is 1,000 miles below Earth's surface and on the line connecting their two centers.
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