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The Man in the Moon:
The Moon always shows the same face to the Earth.
This is due to the fact that the Lunar Day is exactly equal to the Lunar Year (how long it takes to orbit the Earth). It is not because the Moon doesn't rotate.
The condition where the
year and day are equal is called Synchronous Rotation
(Click
here for movie or see Moonsync.mov on
your textbook CD ROM), and in the Moon's case it has been caused
by the same tidal drag that moves the
Oceans and is slowing the Earth's rotation.
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