How do I get this linked with the article on which I am commenting?

Do all these threads ever get connected to the original article? I wanted to comment and also ask a question about the moon and why we only see the one side, more or less. The idea of uneven mass distribution is one that has made sense to me. Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down because the earth attracts their heavy side. Could the wobble of the moon which lets us see 59% over time be due to the sun’s gravity attracting the heavy side of the moon? I don’t know enough about the wobble to test this hypothesis. Maybe someone out ther could, and the next time I look up this question there will be an answer?

As for the moon getting farther from the earth at the rate of 4" per month, run this process backward for a few million years and how close would the moon be? Of course it is not a uniformitarian idea, and the graph would be some sort of curve, but where (at what altitude) did it start out. What kind of tides would it have produced on the earth. What if it’s only thousands of years old and started out as a rock, heavier on one side? Rocks don’t change their shape as easily as the water on the earth, so the idea of tides on the moon doesn’t make sense to me yet. The idea of it starting out spinning faster and eventually slowing down is possible physically, but doesn’t seem to be the case, unless the wobble is getting smaller. Can that be measured? What if those “experts” need to read up on their history? Well, let me know what you think.

I apologize. I didn’t realize last time that Cecil himeself had addressed the topic. Here’s the link: Why does the same side of the moon always face the earth? - The Straight Dope It’s helpful if you can provide a link to the column that you’re commenting on. It helps keep everybody on the same page. Providing the link can be as simple as pasting the URL into your post, making sure to leave a blank space on either side of it, as I did above.

Cecil only rarely responds to comments posted on this message board. Occasionally he may respond in a new column to a comment about an old one, but the odds aren’t good.

bibliophage
moderator CCC