If the moon moves away from the earth little by little every year, how many years will it take for the moon to look as small as a star at night on earth

Question

If the moon moves away from the earth little by little every year, how many years will it take for the moon to look as small as a star at night on earth

In: Mathematics

Answer 1

It won’t move that far. The Moon is moving away by stealing energy from the Earth’s rotation. As the Earth spins, it ever-so-slightly drags the Moon in the direction of the spin, through subtle gravitational phenomena called *tidal forces.* This boosts the Moon’s speed, which increases the radius of its orbit. The moon also drags on the Earth, slowing its spin ever-so-slightly.

Eventually (billions of years from now), the Earth will be rotating so slowly that the same side will always face the Moon—from the Moon’s perspective, the Earth will appear to not rotate at all. At that point, there will be no more rotational energy for the Moon to steal, and so the Moon will cease moving away.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_locking