is there a chance that the earth will collide with the moon? and why do meteors fall on the earth?

Question

newton's third law governs the interaction between the earth and the moon. it states that for every action there is an equal yet opposite reaction. so if the earth exert a force the moon will also exert an equal force so what about meteors?

Answer 1

Many people misinterpret newton's third law. Basically whenever a force is exerted in one direction an equal force is exerted in the opposite direction. When I jump into the air the force exerted by the earth's gravity pulls me down. That same amount of force pulls the Earth up toward me. Compared to the mass of the Earth it is an insignificant amount of force and therefore no measurable acceleration of the Earth is noted, but the force still exists. The moon exerts a significantly larger amount of force on the Earth than I do. As a result we do notice the rise and fall of the tides as a result of the moon's gravity. The two-way force between the Earth and the moon can be thought of like a rope in a game of tug of war. If it were not there, the two would fly apart. Just as both teams pull in opposite directions to maintain position, gravity pulls in both directions to maintain a stable orbit. And yes meteors also exert a force upon the earth, but like me are much smaller than the earth so the earth doesn't move much as a result.

Answer 2

The gravitational attraction, and the centrifugal forces generated by the rotation of the Moon and Earth around a common axis, the barycentre, is largely responsible for the tides on Earth. The energy dissipated in generating tides is directly responsible for the reduction[dubious – discuss] in potential energy in the Moon-Earth orbit around the barycentre, resulting in a 3.8 cm yearly increase in the distance between the two bodies.[2] The Moon will continue to move slowly away from the Earth until the tidal effects between the two are no longer of significance, whereupon the Moon's orbit will stabilise.


Meteors do not "fall" on the earth so much as they collide when thier orbits cross. An object is either an asteroid or comet until it enters the Earth's atmosphere at which point it is consided a meteor. Most meteors are burned to dust in the upper atmosphere due to friction with the gasses that make up the atmosphere. The dust will then "fall" as it's forward velocity is reduced to zero and it is pulled downward by the Earth's gravity. Larger objects that still have forward velocity are still best described as colliding with earth.

Answer 3

Not in my lifetime, plus about 2 billion years.

Meteors fall to the earth only when their orbital position intersects earth's orbital position at a given time. And then, it usually burns up in the atmostphere long before reaching earth. Most of the motion of a meteor is determined by its orbital velocity. It's moving too fast for earth's gravity to have much effect.

The gravitational force between the earth and the moon is symmetric. The moon applies just as much gravitational force on the earth as the earth does on the moon. There is continuous acceleration, but it has resulted in a stable, nearly circular orbit.

Answer 4

yes it's possible for earth to collide with the moon. NASA has proven that each year the distance between the two masses decrease by a few inches. given time, they will collide. meteors are trapped in the gravitational force. now for the third law, i'll give you an example. the earth pulls on the meteor with a force. so the meteor pulls the earth with that same but opposite force. if they're pulling at each other, they're bound to get closer.

Answer 5

I assume you are asking in reference to classical physics in which case, the calculations would show that there is no immediate chance, but that they may eventually collide if there is a decay in the moon's orbit about the earth. Meteors are on different (primarily solar) orbits whose paths cross the path of the earth;s orbit around the sun which makes a collision possible.

From the perspective of quantum physics, it is technically possible for the moon to suddenly find itself inside of the earth, but the likelihood of this happening is so unbelievably high that it is, for all practical purposes, impossible.