The moon also moves sideways in accelerating speed, thus making the distance between earth and the moon greater. Doesn’t it makes more sense that we would say that the moon falls out of orbit or falls from the earth? This question is keeping me busy for over 5 years. I really like to hear from scientists about this subject. Thanks in advance!
In: Physics
The orbit = falling is a bit of a simplification of the terminology. What it means is that an object in orbit is in *free fall* which means it’s only under the influence of gravity (there are no other forces). This doesn’t necesarilly mean the object is falling in the sense of getting closer to Earth, for instance an object that has reached the escape velocity will never fall again and yet technically it’s still in *free fall* as long as it is within the gravitational influence of the Earth.
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