disc@houxz.UUCP () (06/14/84)
T.C. Wheeler: > Now, for once and all, there is a difference between > orbiting and rotating. Exactly! What your doing is combining the two motions into one: orbiting. Assuming for a moment the moon DOESN'T rotate, what, pray tell, does a body do differently when it is orbiting AND rotating? > Rotating on an axis assumes that from *a fixed point in space*, > the body presents different faces at different times. Where, in any of your arguments, have you used a fixed point in space? A point between the Earth and the moon is not fixed, since the Earth orbits the sun, which itself moves through space. What exactly IS a "fixed point in space"--the surface of the Earth? > Imagine that the moon is is at half-moon stage. Imagine further > that you can position yourself 1000 miles above the surface of > the moon just at the point of night and day. Now, remain in > this position for 28 days and observe. What happens? Nothing. > Your position relative to the surface reamains the same as does > your position in respect to the earth except, the earth goes > through 28 revolutions while you are there. You are still 1000 > miles above your predetermined spot. All you have done is prove the moon shows the same face to the Earth. > The moon's "day" is a result of its orbit, not its rotation. It is a result of both. If the moon did not rotate, it would not present the same face to the Earth. It would, in the short term, present nearly the same face to the SUN, having a day roughly equal to a year (the period of the Earth's orbit around the sun). To sum up: Do you REALLY think that, out of all the bodies of the cosmos, only the Earth has a satellite which does not rotate? Or are you claiming that no satellites rotate? Do you REALLY think that, just because *from the Earth* the moon has no APPARENT rotation, it really has none? Do you REALLY think that, even though the moon rotates when viewed from every other point in the universe, the view from Earth is the rule, not the exception? What *I* REALLY think is that your Webster's dictionary has a typo. Under "rotation" it should read "To turn about an axis or center". *Not*, as yours does: "To turn about an axis or center when viewed from Earth". Scott J. Berry