The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #106285   Message #2194737
Posted By: Rapparee
15-Nov-07 - 04:30 PM
Thread Name: BS: the world is slowing down
Subject: RE: BS: the world is slowing down
Tidal effects result in an increase of the mean Earth-Moon distance of about 3.8 m per century, or 3.8 cm per year. As a result of the conservation of angular momentum, the increasing semimajor axis of the Moon is accompanied by a gradual slowing of the Earth's rotation by about 0.002 seconds per day per century.

And so, as the Moon recedes in the sky and the Earth slows in its orbit, lovers will have longer and longer to gaze at a smaller and smaller Moon in June, except that before that the Sun will have bloated into a Red Giant and we'll all fry.