Suppose the moon rotated on it axis just as quickly as Earth. Would you still always see the same side of the moon from Earth?
*PLEASE HELP ME WITH THIS QUESTION*
Since this was not my area of expertise, I hesitated to answer.
Are you assuming that they are both rotating in the same direction?
However, my assumption is that, since the sizes of the planets are different, the same side would NOT always be seen from the earth.
I assume you mean by rotation, angular velocity, or period of rotation, and assuming you NEVER Moved.
IF you look up a night at the moon, and see point A, then in 24 hours, look up and see point A if the moon remains motionless. Nice. However, the moon is in orbit about the Earth, it is not sationary, so you are no longer directly below the point A, because the Moon is moved, so the center of the face you now see is Not point A, so the entire face you see is different because of the moon's orbit position change.
thank u
To answer this question, we need to understand a few concepts related to the moon's rotation and its orbit around the Earth.
The moon takes about 27.3 days to complete one full rotation on its axis. This is the same amount of time it takes for the moon to complete one full orbit around the Earth. As a result, the moon always presents the same face towards the Earth, a phenomenon known as "tidal locking".
Now, let's consider a scenario where the moon rotates on its axis just as quickly as the Earth, which takes approximately 24 hours. In this case, the moon would still exhibit tidal locking, meaning that we would still always see the same side of the moon from Earth.
To understand why, consider that the moon's orbital period around the Earth is determined by the gravitational forces between the two bodies. This gravitational interaction creates a "tidal bulge" on the moon, causing it to slightly elongate along the direction towards the Earth. Over time, these tidal forces slow down the moon's rotation until it becomes tidally locked.
So, even if the moon's rotation speed matched that of the Earth's, the gravitational forces acting on the moon would still cause it to become tidally locked, resulting in us always seeing the same face of the moon from Earth.