Why doesn't moon fall down on earth?

[Shashank]

Have you ever thought why moon doesn't fall down on earth? well here's your answer. Do give your feedback.

 

 

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Content of the video:

 

Before answering this question let us understand what force is? What do forces do to an object? In short, you can say that forces change the motion of the object. Have a look at three different cases for force. Suppose an object is moving to the left and we apply a force in the same direction, in this case the object will speed up, if we apply force in the opposite direction to the velocity of object, the object will slow down.

Take a case when the force is applied perpendicular to the velocity of the object. Let us call this a sideways force. If only a sideways force is applied to an object, the object will not speed up neither it will slow down, it just turns, or to be precise the object changes direction in this case.

Here is an example. Take a ball at the end of a string, swing the ball around in a circle. Why does it move this way? The string pulls on the ball. But since the string can only pull in the direction of the string (you can’t push with a string), the ball has a sideways force on it and the ball changes direction.

Now back to our question. Here you can see the red arrow represents the gravitational force on the moon. If the moon were moving in a perfect circle, the gravitational force would always be “sideways” and just cause it to change its direction. So we can say that moon is constantly trying to fall into the earth but keeps missing.

Have a look at simple example

Imagine you're standing at the edge of a cliff 100m tall. If you drop a rock off, it will fall straight down. If you throw the rock harder, it goes further

If you could throw the rock hard enough, the Earth would curve away from underneath the rock so much that the rock actually never gets any closer to the ground. It goes all the way around in the circle and might hit you in the back of the head!

This is an orbit. It's what satellites and the moon are doing.

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Edited August 20, 2015 by swansont

[swansont]

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