ANSWERS: 6
  • There is no groung hence the name SPACE
  • 1) "To understand how it can be that nothing is holding the moon up and yet it doesn't fall down, you have to remember two things: 1) the earth is round; and 2) the moon is moving horizontally at high speed. It's the horizontal motion over a round earth that keeps the moon from getting any closer. You can see this more easily by imagining what would happen if the earth were flat. The moon would still travel in a horizontal line above the ground; but because it's also falling, it would come closer and closer to the flat earth until it collided. Now imagine what would happen if the flat earth had a slight bend in it. When the moon passes over the bent part of the earth, in effect it will pick up altitude, because the ground has dropped away underneath it. Now the moon has farther to fall before hitting the ground, and so it can also travel farther horizontally. Once you realize how the curved earth "drops away" under the moon as it travels, you can see that with a completely round earth, such as we have, it is possible for the ground to "drop away" perpetually. If an object is moving fast enough horizontally, the curve of the earth exactly balances the distance it falls vertically, and the object never gets any closer. And that's what it means to be in orbit." Source and further information: http://amos.indiana.edu/library/scripts/moonfall.html 2) "Essentially, the moon is moving so fast, that it travels past the curve of the earth before it would strike. Imagine if you threw a baseball at 20,000 mph.... so it would fly off, and as it fell, the earth would curve, so it would never actually strike the ground. You could ask the same question of the planets orbitting around the sun, by the way" "All moving objects in the vicinity of Earth travel in an elliptical orbit around the Earth's center of mass unless atmospheric drag or some other force sucks energy out of the orbit. How close the objects come to the Earth's center of mass is the key. If the closest point in its orbit happens to be below the Earth's surface, it hits the ground. The Moon is travelling fast enough that it's closest point is well outside the Earth's atmosphere. The more energy (kinetic and potential energy combined) an object has, the larger the orbit, and the further the object stays from Earth. So it's a balance between speed and position - a object closer to the Earth has to travel faster to keep it's closest point outside the atmosphere than an object that starts out far away. While virtually all orbits are elliptical (the odds of an object's orbit being perfectly circular and staying perfectly circular are virtually nil), the Moon's orbit is almost circular." Source and further information: http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=143578 Further information: - " Exactly Why doesn't the moon fall and strike the earth?": http://www.physicsforums.com/archive/index.php/t-143578.html - "Why doesn't the moon fall down?" (with nice animations): http://www.chaosscience.org.uk/pub/public_html//article.php?story=20040629175315124 - "Understanding Orbits or Why Doesn't the Moon Fall Down?": http://www.lasalle.edu/~smithsc/Astronomy/Orbits/orbits.html
  • The Moon falls 1/20 inch every second towards Earth. At the same time, the Earths surface curves away from the moon at roughly the same rate. So, the Moon is trapped falling forever towards Earth.
  • there are thousands of wizards all over the world using magic spells to keep it in its position in space
    • Special K
      Are you sure?
    • Special K
      Are you sure?
  • Cause the ropes holding it in place up in the sky are really strong
  • in short....The moon is not in the earths atmosphere but is within the gravitational pull of the earth, mars and the sun which basically keeps it in place.

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