Moon receding...?

Question

Is there a relationship between the moon's receding from the Earth and the theory that the moon came from the Earth?

Answer 1

Not really.
The moon is receding because of the tides the moon causes on Earth (believe it or not).

The tides, especially in the shallow areas of the ocean, actually cause friction between the water and the land, and to a lesser degree friction between the land itself (tides are also in the land, we just don't notice them so much).
That friction, day after day and year after year, is very slowly causing the Earth's rotation to slow down (making the day a tiny bit longer each century).

The law of the conservation of momentum of a system (in this case the moon and the Earth together) says that the total momentum of a system must remain constant.
Momentum includes the orbiting of the two objects around their centre of gravity, plus the rotation of both bodies.
So if the Earth slows down, that momentum has to be compensated for somewhere. The moon's rotation is tidally locked with its orbit around the Earth, so that can't change. The only motion that could change to compensate is the orbit of the two bodies around each other.

So the moon is slowly moving away from us to compensate for the tides.

Answer 2

Just to correct what Hazel T. said about the theory of where the moon came from, the earth during its early formation was hit by an asteroid approximately the size of Mars (not Mars itself). This caused matter from the asteroid and the mantle of the earth to be thrown into space where it came together to form the moon. But, yes, the moon and the earth are receding from each other because of the tidal friction between the two bodies.

Answer 3

Yes.

It is caused by the fact that the earth is rotating in the same direction as the moon's orbit ... and this is the result of that huge collision with a smaller planet (not Mars, but something almost as large) early in the earth's history that caused the moon to separate from the earth.

The recession of the sun is due to tidal friction. The fact that the rotation of the earth keeps the tidal bulge of the oceans slightly ahead of the moon's orbit. This tends to drag the moon a little faster, which is what causes the moon to recede (and the rotation of the earth to slow down slightly).

Answer 4

Yes, the Moon is slowly receding from Earth. See the excellent answers above. If you are REALLY interested in this subject I recommend the excellent book "The Big Splat" by Dana Mackenzie available on amazon.com and in some local bookstores.