How fast does the moon rotate?

Answer 1

== The Moon rotates once in about 27.32 days, and its radius is 1080 miles or 1738 km. The rotational speed starts at zero at either geographic pole (the two places where the axis of rotation intersects the surface) and increases (but not at a constant rate) as you head toward the lunar equator, where it reaches its maximum of about 10.3 mi/hr (or 16.7 km/hr). Pretty slow!

The fact that the moon rotates (spins) on its axis once per lunar cycle (orbit around earth) gives rise to the observation that the same side of the moon always faces earth. If the moon did not rotate at all relative to the fixed stars, we would observe most of the surface of the moon over the course of a year or so. It would take some time for all the dark 'new moon' surfaces to be exposed to us in sunlight.

Answer 2

The moon is 363,300km away from earth on an average. So assuming that the orbit is pretty much circular, the orbital length will be,

= 2×π×363,300

= 2282681.22km

The orbital time period of the moon is 27.3217days = 655.7208hrs

Therefore, the orbital speed of the moon is,

= 2282681.22/655.7208

= 3481.17860km/hr

or

= 966.994055m/

Answer 3

On Earth, the rate at which things fall (gravitational acceleration) is 9.8 m/s2. On the Moon, it is approximately 1.6 m/s2.

Note: m/s2 (meters per second per second) means that for every second that the object falls it increases in speed by that amount. In Earth's case that is an additional 9.8m every second and in the case of the Moon, it is an additional 1.6 meters in speed every second.

Answer 4

From a purely theoretical standpoint: The Moon is affected by the force of gravity due to the Earth.

The Moon also has mass.

Newton's second law is F=ma.

Hence the Moon must be accelerating, as a=F/m is non-zero.

From a more physical standpoint we know that the Moon is in orbit (moving around the Earth in a circle). A body cannot move in a circle if it only moves in one direction. Hence the direction the Moon is moving in is changing. Hence the Moon's velocity (which has a magnitude and a direction) is changing. The only way to change your velocity is to accelerate.

Bear in mind that the magnitude of the velocity remains the same, so that it always takes the same amount of time to complete one orbit.

Answer 5

it hasn't been proved yet, but in my opinion its definatly not the moon, because its colder which makes everything freeze so it goes slower and since the sun is warm it moves quicker. but its just an opinion:))

Answer 6

The moon's orbit is much lower in frequency than the earth's spin. The moon orbits earth once in a little more than 27 days. The earth spins once on its axis in very close to 24 hours. Both motions are anticlockwise when viewed from the north. This accounts for the moon's apparent motion of rising in the east and setting in the west, even though its true motion is from the west toward the east.

Answer 7

The moon rotates on its axis once each 27.32 days (rounded). The exact number is

precisely the same length of time as it takes to complete one orbital revolution around

the earth. That's why its rotation never falls behind or gets ahead of its revolution, and

no human being ever saw the far side of the moon until the Russians orbited a camera

around it and had it send pictures back to us.

Answer 8

The Moon rotates on its axis (revolves) in exactly the same time as it takes to make one orbit round the Earth. That is 27.321582 days, its equatorial rotation velocity is 4.627 m/s.

Answer 9

The moon rotates at the rate of one complete rotation per 27.32 days.

Answer 10

Once per 27.32 days,

or roughly 0.23 radian per day,

or roughly 0.55 degree per hour.