Gravity pulls things towards the earth's mass until "they bottom out". Why isn't the moon sucked into Earth?
467325
Thatguy said:\n\n"because the moon is in orbit (read: freefall) everytime the moon tries to fall to the earth, the earth backs away from it and the cycle continues" \n\nwhich is complete nonsense. The earth "backs away"? orbit is the same thing as freefall? what?\n\nGravity is an attractive force that exists between each and every object that has mass. Think of it as being like magnetism.  The reason things orbit (eg the moon) is because the pull downwards towards the earth is almost exactly balanced by the pull away from Earth exerted by the centrifigal force of going around the earth & the gravitational pull of all that other stuff out there.  Orbits work because these forces are not exactly equal, so the tendency of something to fly off into space is just overcome by the attraction towards the large mass below, and the moon is, in fact, getting a little closer over time.  Eventually, like various pieces of space junk, the earth's gravitational pull will overcome the orbital force and the moon will crash into a field in Nebraska, where a farmer will claim an alien came out of it.\n\nclear as mud
465766
TIDES 101:\n\nThe earth's water is fluid. It moves easily.\n\nThe earth spins once on it's axis in ~24hr period.\n\nAs the earth turns, it literally spins through the water. This causes it to bulge up along the coastlines. This is called the tidal bulge.\n\nDepending on earth's proximity to the moon & to some degree, the sun, we will either be in or out of the bulge.\n\nIf the the moon & the sun are lined up on the same side the tidal bulge will be greater than normal.\n\nIf the moon is at a right angle in relation to the sun & earth, then the physical forces cancel each other out & the tidal bulge isn't as great.\n\nBelow is a diagram to go along w/ the info above.\n\n:)
310291
Kind of, but not quite.  The Earth is pulled by the Moon's gravity just as the Moon is pulled by the Earth's gravity.  The center of gravity of the Earth-Moon system (called the barycenter) is actually inside the Earth, but not at the center of the Earth, so its better to say that the Earth wobbles rather than revolving around a point.\n\nPluto and Charon actually do revolve around each other, and around the barycenter which is between the two objects.
320636
technichally speaking, if the earth were hollow, we wouldn't have gravity. If the earth is hollow, then where do we get volcanoes from? Figure it out.
232284
The waters of the oceans are pulled downwards by gravity; they flow around the planet in currents.  The continents shift and drift and the water flows into the spaces left.  The moon's gravity pulls the water and creates tides.  The waters of our little planet are in constant motion.
348014
The particles that make up the rings of Saturn don’t get pulled down to the planet because they orbit the planet.  They remain in orbit for the same reason the Moon or the Space Shuttle remain in orbit around Earth.  In fact, you can think of them as billions of tiny “moonlets”:  they don’t sit still but instead revolve around the planet in predictable (although often complicated) orbits.\n\nAny orbit is a balance between gravity and the motion of the orbiting body.  Objects close to the parent body must orbit more quickly to counteract the stronger pull of gravity—for example, Mercury moves faster in its orbit around the Sun than Earth does—but any orbit constitutes an equilibrium between gravity and momentum.\n\nThat said, Saturn’s rings represent a complicated example of this kind of equilibrium.  Not only does one have to consider the gravitational attraction of Saturn itself, but also of its major moons (Titan, for exampl) and all the aforementioned “moonlets” spinning around the planet.  The results are often surprising:  we see “shepherd” moons that keep rings herded in place, strange propeller-like structures, and even braided rings!  (Links below to some images of these oddities.)\n\nBut the short answer to your question is that the rings, made up of billions of particles, remain constantly in motion, counteracting the pull of gravity.\n\n\nRyan Wyatt\nRose Center for Earth & Space
1102975
Because gravity pulls equally in all directions.\nAs soon as the materials that the earth is made of began to gather together under self-gravity, the center pulled equally in all directions.  As heat from friction and radioactivity made much of the early earth molten, gravity pulled it into the most efficient shape -- a sphere.  Because of the earth's rotation and centrifugal force, it's not quite a perfect sphere -- it bulges a bit at the equator and is slightly flattened at the poles -- but it's simply gravity doing what it does naturally.  It's why all large bodies are in the shape of a sphere.
225823
Here on earth, we have a layer of gases surrounding us. The layer is called atmosphere. The gas is called air which is actually a mixture of many gases. The properties of the atmosphere varies according to height. Earth has her own atmosphere because she has enough gravity to attract all the things towards the center. But the Moon has a lower mass than that of earth. So, the gravitational pull is not enough to hold the atmosphere. You might have spied many fireballs or meteors in a starry night. They are big ball of rocks. When they come in the atmosphere they are burnt due to friction with the air. So, when they hit the ground they're most likely to be burnt to ashes. But, as Moon has no atmosphere, the rocky meteor-balls hit the ground without any interruption. So, moon's surface is filled with uncountable craters due to absence of an atmosphere.
682353
It works like this...\n\nA satellite is launched into space at a very specific angle.  It is carried to a specific height and gravity keeps it where they want it the same way it keeps the moon in check.  The object is in a continuous state of free fall but it doesn't fall from the sky (OK, when they get the math wrong some do fall from the sky.) because of it's inertial mass.  The inertial mass (newtons 2nd law) causes the satellite to move away from the earth and out into space... the gravity of the earth keeps pulling it down so that it can't get away.   \n\nLemme see if I can clarify.  draw a circle, better yet, get an orange, apple, round object.  The satellite is a few hundred miles above the earth... now get a pencil, pen, ruler, whatever.  put the orange on a desk and hold the pencil over top of the orange earth.  make sure it is pointing side to side and not straight up above our earth.  This is the path of the satellite when there is no gravity, it wants to go in a straight line away from the planet... You can see that it would get further away from the surface the more it moves away from the center.\n___\n.O\n\nEarth's gravity pulls it back toward the earth, counteracting the satellites natural motion, and when all the math is figured out you can keep it at an exact height above the earth and if your really good you can make it geosynchronous (always over the same spot)
582803
The moon has its own speed in space. But the earth pulls it toward it.  \n\nif any object is moveing with some speed and if a force is applied latterally (perpendicular to its direction of motion)  and pointed toward a fixed point then the body will move in circular motion\n\nSince the earth's pull is perpendicular to the motion of the moon and is always pointed toward the center of the eaarth the moon moves always round the earth.
89908
Yeah, if you think about it, there is really no way to "add" weight to the earth unless it comes from another planet or moon.  Everything on earth at some point was derived from existing matter.  This is a rule of nature.  Matter cannot be created nor destroyed!
196388
Neither.  Considering there is still a WHOLE lot of gravity on the moon compared to other places, it would most likely stay on the ground, but it would not get absorbed.  The pull of Earth would keep it there on the surface.  It could freeze or boil, depending on the time you are on the moon and where you are on it.
221678
the earth doesnt fly towards the sun cuz there r more than one force acting upon it...theres the gravitational pull the sun has on the earth as well as the fact that the moon wants to remain in motion in the same direction.this applies to newtons 1rd law of motion(his first law is that an object will remain at rest until acted upon by another object or it will remain in motion until acted upon by an object..in other words,its inertia)...since the earth has both a side movement and the gravitational pull from the sun...those 2 forces cause the earth to orbit around the sun and not fly towards it or away from it. if u dont understand this...email me (pulga0888@yahoo.com) and ill try to explain it better..........now for ur second question...wat makes the earth spin...the earth spins because of the rotation of the magna and stuff in the earths core..well in the convection zone...im pretty sure thats the answer to the second question but im not positive...if u want me to check then email me.
678921
driver08uk got it all wrong.\n\nyes it is the gravity of the moon that causes tides. gravity of the sun also affects tides. all the water is not pulled away from the earth beacuse earths gravity near its own surface is much stronger than that of the moon.\n\nThis is like a tug of war . A strong team pulls the rope to its side. But the weak team also pulls the rope so that the strong team does not win outright but most of the rope is towards it. The strong team is the earth, the moon is the weak team anfd seawater is the rope
533693
Gravity is a very weak force.  Think of a fridge magnet.  A small magnet, or large for that matter, will stick to a fridge despite the gravity from the entire earth pulling it down.
344029
The moon's got gravity too, and like the Earth pulls the moon, the moon pulls on the Earth's waters. Depending on where the moon is, you get different tides. Kinda like if you move a magnet in a circle around a paperclip. The paperclip will move in different directions depending on where the magnet is.
891200
Gas, air, the atmosphere - it's made up of molecules of gas, each of which has mass.  That mass is attracted to the Earth by gravity.  Light as air is, it still has mass that it captured by Earth's gravity.  When an asteroid  comes along and smacks into the Earth, water vaper and air are throw far out into space, several hundreds of miles (the atmosphere is only about 100 miles high).  However, it all comes back due to the force of gravity.\n\nHowever, Earth's gravity is not strong enough to hold the lightest elements, hydrogen and helium.  That is the reason Earth is a small rocky planet and not a gas giant like Jupiter or Saturn, or even the sun.  Get big enough and you can attract even the lightest elements - which adds mass - which attracts more gas - which adds more mass - etc etc etc.\n\nThat's why your idea, unfortunately, won't work.  Gravity.