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
When an object is in a circular orbit of another object, there is only a single force acting between the two and the direction of that force is pulling the object in orbit *directly* towards the other thing. Not any other angle, only directly towards the centre of the circle. For the earth and the moon that force is gravity. For an object on a string that you are spinning in circles over your head using your hands that force comes from the string. For an object moving around a circular track that force is the track itself which is angled so that the normal (“straight up” relative to the track’s angle) points towards the centre of the circle, etc.
So if the moon is experiencing a constant gravity pull towards the earth, then you can argue it is always falling towards earth, but since it also has sideways motion it is constantly missing the earth as it falls. Same applies to anything in general orbit like the space station… but since they’re a lot closer to the earth their horizontal speed needs to be much higher to “keep missing” the earth as they fall.
Of course, the moon’s orbit is not a perfect circle and it’s not moving at quite the exact speed required to maintain a constant orbit, etc so it does drift a bit.
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