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There are two effects that are prominent. The first is tidal braking. The moon's effects on the tides of the earth acts like a set of brakes slowing the earth's rotation. The effect is very slight but over a long period of time actually makes the days last longer. Geological measurements suggest that days used to be much shorter (18 to 20 hours long) in prehistoric times.
Another affect of the tidal forces is that the revolution of the moon around the earth is also slowing and that as a result, the moon is drifting farther and farther away. We can actually measure this by bouncing lasers off the mirrors left on the moon by the Apollo astronauts. This too is a very slow process.
Eventually, both the earth and the moon will become tidally locked to each other. The days will last a month long and the moon will be very far away.

2007-06-19 00:45:30 · answer #1 · answered by sparc77 7 · 1 0

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