Why does the moon orbit about the earth and not the sun?

Answer 1

The moon orbits the sun as the earth orbits the sun.
The moon is held in place by the earths gravitational pull which is greater than the suns effect upon the moon.

Answer 2

Remember what Galileo said about dropping objects of different weights at the same time? Despite having different masses they fall with the same acceleration.

The same is true of the Earth and the Moon. Although is it so far away, the Sun pulls on the Moon with three times the force the Earth does. But, the Sun is pulling on the Earth too. The amount of force the Sun exerts on the Earth is proportional to its mass. So like a hammer and a feather, the Earth and Moon are both falling around the Sun with the same acceleration. The result is that, in relation to each other, the attraction of the Sun cancels out.

So the Moon is orbiting the sun, it's just also orbit the Earth as it does so.

Answer 3

The moon IS actually orbiting the sun, but it is clinging to the earth while it does it - the moon is caught in the earth's gravity field. So as the earth orbits the sun so is the moon.

Answer 4

Actually, it orbits both the earth and the sun. In fact, from the perspective of the sun, the moon's path is actually concave at all times. This is possible because the sun is 400 times as far as the moon.

Answer 5

the earth and moon orbit a gravitational center that is actually a few hundred miles below the earth's crust. So the "earth-moon" system orbits the sun.

Answer 6

actually the moon orbits both the earth and the sun at the same time

Answer 7

because the earth orbits around the sun.

Answer 8

Its gravitational attraction to the earth is greater than it attraction to the sun.