why doesn't the moon crash into the earth? Isn't the earth's gravity pulling the moon keeping it in orbit?

Answer 1

It's because the velocity of the moon pulls the moon outwards and the gravity of the Earth pulls it inward.

Answer 2

The Earth and the Moon's gravity balance each other out at the distance apart that they are and the fact that the Moon is in a type of free fall around our Earth and combined with each others gravity, the Moon will never crash into the Earth. In fact, the Moon is moving away from the Earth at a rate of 3.8 centimetres or about 2 inches per year. In about 5 billion years from now the Moon will have moved much further away from Earth and this will cause one Earth day to last 55 days.

Answer 3

Centripetal force is what keeps the moon at a distance and from crashing into the earth.

As in Newton's laws of motion, any object in motion has a tendency to stay in motion in that direction that it is going in unless acted upon by an outside force. So, the moon wants to move in a straight line - if it keeps doing that it moves further and further away from the earth.

However, the gravitational pull of the Earth on the moon and the moon on the Earth pulls the moon towards the Earth. So instead of moving away from the Earth in that straight line, gravity pulls it downward and forms the arc. The orbit at which the moon has achieved is a balance between that centrifugal force of the moon wanting to continue along its straight path away and the gravitational force pulling the moon towards the Earth.

Answer 4

It's becuase the sun's gravity is pulling the moon to its orbit too so the force is even

its like the nearer you are to the earth the heavier you are, so GRAVITY and if you are in the tip of mount everest you become lighter becuase the epicenter of the gravity is already weaker... but since the earth is nearer to the moon than the sun to the moon the gravitational pull (sun)would somehow end up the same as the gravitional pull of the earth so its even no force hapenning there...get it?

Answer 5

Gravity is pulling the moon "down" to the Earth, but the motion of the moon around the Earth is flinging it back out into space the same way something is pulled away when swung around your head at the end of a rope (centrifugal force).
The pull of gravity in one direction, and the centrifugal force in the other direction equal each other, therfore the moon doesn't move further away, or drop down to Earth.

Answer 6

The moon is in orbit. Like all objects in orbit around the Earth, the Moon is in a constant state of free-fall toward the Earth. Like all orbiting objects, however, it's moving fast enough that as it falls down, it misses the Earth. Its position is always changing as a result of this motion, causing it to fall in a slightly different direction from one moment to the next. The sum result of all those slightly different motions is the orbital path of the Moon.

Answer 7

While the moon was traveling in space the earths gravity was able to catch it in orbit, but the moon never lost its momentum. it doesn't crash in to the earth because its momentum is still directed out instead of in. In actuality the moon is getting farther away from the earth every year.

Answer 8

The moon is moving forward as it falls toward the earth.. so instead of hitting the earth.. it misses it.. but it misses by about the same amount that it is far away now...

hmmm.. lets say you place a trampoline right next to a 10 ft tall building (flat roof) and you run across the roof and jump over the side and miss the trampoline by 10 ft... that's the same as the moon falling... except... there is no ground to hit at 250,000 miles away from the earth so it just keeps falling around and around.

Answer 9

moon doesn't crash into earth because gravitational pull and cenripetal and centrifugal force balance the moon and hence, moon revolves without crashing. Direction of revolving of moon is tangent to that point.
I will explain you by taking an example.
Suppose a boy having a thread and a stone is knoted through the thread. Now, boy is making moves stone through a circular path. You will observe that thread apply a tension force on stone which makes the stone moves in circular path. a boy is giving a velocity to stone and thread is giving a circular path. Similarly, tension is gravitational force and velocity given by boy is centripetal force. If thread will break up. Then, stone will go to tangent direction at that point. Similarly, if gravitational force of earth and moon become zero, then, moon will go away from earth at direction of tangent at that point.

Answer 10

actually it is. i was watching the discovery channel and there was a thing about that. the earth's gravity is in fact pulling the moon closer. they found that the moon is like a tiny bit closer to the earth than it ever has been. and that tiny bit is a lot. God likes to mess with science. He's the only real scientist