If the Earth has gravity and pulls things to it, and the moon has gravity that pulls things to it, What keeps the Earth and the moon from pulling each other together?
212454
Great question.\n\nThe reason that they don't collide is that the moon is moving to fast.\n\nCheck this out- when the space shuttle is up in space it is only about a 100-150 miles up there. Why doesn't it just fall out of the sky and crash into the planet? \n\nWell the answer to why things don't fall out the sky is because they are in orbit- duh-. The space shuttle is not only up in space it is also moving sideways at a tremedous speed. The shuttle IS falling out of the sky, but the reason it doesn't ever hit the ground is all that sideways motion. Everytime it starts falling, the earth has moved out of the way ( sideways- remember) so it changes direction and starts to fall again, well guess what the earth has moved out of the way again. This keeps repeating and repeating. in essence anything in orbit- satelites, moons, and space shuttles are always falling but they never seem to get there. That is why the moon never hits the earth. It's important to remember that just because you are in space does not mean gravity is not pullin you down. I assure you if the shuttle was somehow able to suddenly stop it would fall out the sky like a rock. The reason the people in the space shuttle are floating is because they are falling and not because they are in space.\n\nI just have to add a little more to this statement- You know that in freefall ( you jumped out of a airplane ) you can't feel gravity and there is no up or down or sideways. The same thing with being in orbit since you are always falling you can't feel gravity either. One other thing the people that wrote first on this question really need to double check their facts. The Perfect distance and gravity cancelling out stuff is wrong. The moon could and used to be much closer to earth. It also went around earth much faster, but because of tidal action the moon has slowed down and gone into a farther out orbit. The moon even today is leaving the earth at about three inches a year. It is slowing down and so is our day- our day is getting longer because of the moon
220454
Because it's to far away.  And it's still in orbit with the Earth.  When an object moves it doesn't want to stop.  Therefore the Moon stays with us.
4899
To answer the question asked:  It depends on neither.\n\nWeight is a factor of the amount of mass in a gravity field.  \n\nOn earth, the gravity field is uniform enough for weight to be a good measure of mass.  But take your 5 pound rock to the moon and it would weigh much less even though it still has the same mass.  It weighs less because the pull of gravity on the moon is less.  As the pull is what gives the rock its acceleration when dropped, it is only the pull that determines how fast something drops. \n\nThe last mission to the moon did the classical experiment of dropping a hammer and a feather at the same time.  Since there is no air on the moon they both dropped at the same rate.  But it was a rate that was much slower had the hammer been dropped on earth.\n\nSo it isn't the mass, nor an objects weight, but how strong the gravity field the object is in when it is dropped.\n\nThat means on earth all things fall at the same rate.  We see a difference when we drop a feather and a hammer on earth because of the friction of the air places greater drag on the feather than on the hammer.\n\nBut they are both pulled down at the same rate by the gravity of the earth.
525298
the moon does have gravity, and the flag was not waving it was shaking when they put it in the ground, \n\ncheck this out this video\n\nhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMrUpCjVHIk
334494
They actually do, but as previously stated the moon is much less massive than the Earth so we don't rotate as much compared to the moon. \n\nIncidentally: the Moon is not rotating around the Earth in a strict sense, it's actually spiraling away at about one inch per year, eventually the Moon will escape orbit. Just FYI.
30811
Yes the moon is getting further away from us each year at a rate of aboout 4 centimetres a year.  The moon helps stabilise the Earth's rotation and stops us "flopping around".  In 2 billion years the moon will have moved far enough away to loose its influence.  The effect of this on the Earth is not known.
250518
first the moon is our orbit and doesn't really help keep us  in orbit it actuallly slows  us down. earths core helps keeps us spinning. and the polar ice caps moving around may not affect us so much because, if position right, the moon may block some of the sun light, since the ice caps are so big,  and keep the ice caps from melting.
349881
Don't forget that large bodies like the earth itself, and the sun, are themselves held together with gravity.\n\nProbably the first thing that we would notice is that the earth would immediately lose its atmosphere as it went flying off the planet into space, as would the oceans.  Everything on the surface of the planet would go flying off due to the centrifugal force of its spinning ... buildings would just rip off their foundations like cheese shaking off a cheese-puff.  Without an atmosphere, it's doubtful you and I would live more than 15 or 30 seconds.\n\nThe earth  would immediately break apart in a big cloud of hot liquid iron (the core of the earth) and all the stuff on the surface.\n\nThe moon would also disolve into a huge cloud of hot rocks and sand.\n\nThe sun would explode rather violently, as the pressure from the burning of the inner core would suddenly have no force counteracting it.  The same would be happening to every star and planet in the universe.  And galaxies themselves would fly apart (as they too are held together with gravity).\n\nAnd yes, what is left of the earth would fly away from what is left of the sun ... although it would be quickly overtaken by the exploding sun.\n\nBut, of course, it ain't gonna happen.  I'll bet everything I own on it.  :-)  \n\nThink of this as a great way to get back in with your girlfriend ... "Hey baby, if gravity were suddenly to disappear, we need to be holdin' each other really tight!"  (You take it from there).
232824
the net force acting on the moon is directed towards earth.\n\nthe net force acting on earth is directed towards the moon.\n\nthe force on the earth is weak and the earth is very massive so it only causes the earth to wobble, however the force on the moon is large and it is less massive so it orbits the earth.
210275
The paper is out, because of wind resistance, leaving only the small and big rocks.  Refering to the 11th century-actually, Newton's law was supplanted some years ago, and we know that the acceleration due to gravity is determined by the combined gravitational forces of both objects.  Assuming an exactly equal shape and an exactly equal density of the two rocks, the larger would fall more rapidly, because of the involvement of it's own gravity.  If we assume, for example, that the small rock is the size of a baseball, and the big rock is the size of, oh...the moon, then the big rock will fall quite a bit faster (the combined gravity will be greater, because of greater mass).  As the large rock gets smaller, the gravity will decrease.  However, no matter how close in size the two rocks, there will be some difference.  It would not be easily measurable at anything less that a few million tons, but it would still be there.\nNewton was likely the greatest genius that ever lived...but we have moved beyond him in a lot of areas, including our understanding of gravity-
458310
The attractive force of the "magnet earth" is much smaller than it's gravitational force. In fact it's negligibly small. Proof: put an iron object on the table, like a knife. Despite it being much more closer to the earth than the moon, it will not budge.
387174
because of the moon! Venus is too close to the sun so all of its water evaporated into space and mars has no large moon to deflect comets and asteroids into it and add water that are in most comets and some asteroids! and the gravity of a large moon creates friction in the tectonic plates by pulling strongest on the crust causing them to melt and release water vapor and lava from volcano's  like our moon does and if the moon did have water then it would evaporate and fall down to its closest neighbor, namely, earth. and if the moon had  oceans it would be pulled up [or down] depending on your point of view because of the enormous tidal forces of earth on them ! and if it where farther out than mars the oceans would be froze on top like the moons of the outer planets because of lack of sunlight!
206403
Yes, and not only does it affect the land, it also affects everything else comprised of atoms, which is everything-Including You!!\nDepending on which side of the earth you are on, or which side you are closest to. If you are on the moon side then  you actually wiegh less because the earth and moon are both pulling on you, but in opposite directions, thus the moon diminishes the earths gravittional pull on you if even only by a tiny amount. If you are on the side opposite the moon, then the earth and moon have a combined pull, resulting in a stronger gravitational pull on you. \nAll mass has this same affect on all other mass, however it is more evident when there are large masses involved, such as the moon.\n\nHappy full moon.
182283
The Earth is round.\nObviously at lower latitudes you view the moon from a different angle than what you would at higher latitudes.\nSo that at the equater the moon when rising would look like a bowl from that angle in that phase.
363383
Use your body weight to open the door to a library.\nWalk up to the reference librarian and ask "what is the mass of planet earth"?\n\nNewton showed that, for spherical objects, you can make the simplifying assumption that all of the object's mass is concentrated at the center of the sphere. The following equation expresses the gravitational attraction that two spherical objects have on one another: \n\nF = G * M1 * M2 / R2 \nR is the distance separating the two objects. \nG is a constant that is 6.67259x10-11m3/s2 kg. \nM1 and M2 are the two masses that are attracting each other. \nF is the force of attraction between them. \nAssume that Earth is one of the masses (M1) and a 1-kg sphere is the other (M2). The force between them is 9.8 kg*m/s2 -- we can calculate this force by dropping the 1-kg sphere and measuring the acceleration that the Earth's gravitational field applies to it (9.8 m/s2). \n\nThe radius of the Earth is 6,400,000 meters (6,999,125 yards). If you plug all of these values in and solve for M1, you find that the mass of the Earth is 6,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kilograms (6E+24 kilograms / 1.3E+25 pounds). \n\n1 It is "more proper" to ask about mass rather than weight because weight is a force that requires a gravitational field to determine. You can take a bowling ball and weigh it on the Earth and on the moon. The weight on the moon will be one-sixth that on the Earth, but the amount of mass is the same in both places. To weigh the Earth, we would need to know in which object's gravitational field we want to calculate the weight. The mass of the Earth, on the other hand, is a constant.
323917
Nobody has found any evidence for a form of gravity the repels instead of attracting, but that doesn't keep people from looking for it. It may yet be found. But such a force is not needed to explain orbital motion. In fact, it would disrupt orbits, causing the Earth to fly away from the Sun and never return.
310727
No, because gravity is inflicted by the mass of an object... and we have a very massive object near by that will outweigh any gravity caused by a humble golf ball or a slightly proud bowling ball: it's called the Earth.\n\nBasically, gravity is a force of attraction, so a large object will attract a small object. That is what keeps the moon orbiting the Earth, and the planets orbiting the Sun. Even here on Earth objects are attracted to each other, but the Earth's gravity makes that force almost impossible to measure or detect.