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.... conservation of angular momentum transfers Earth's lost (rotational) energy to the moon causing it to travel faster in it's orbit around Earth, a faster orbital speed means is a bigger orbit : the moon slowly moves away from the Earth ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_acceleration
RD, I'm trying to get my head round the idea that the tidal effect would cause the moon to speed up. How is the energy transferred from Earth to moon?
Ocean tides are caused by the gravitational pull of the Moon (and, to a lesser extent, the Sun). The resulting tidal bulge in Earth's oceans is dragged ahead of the Moon in its orbit due to the daily rotation of Earth. As a consequence, the ocean mass offset from the Earth-Moon line exerts a pull on the Moon and accelerates it in its orbit. Conversely, the Moon's gravitational tug on this mass exerts a torque that decelerates the rotation of Earth. The length of the day gradually increases as energy is transferred from Earth to the Moon, causing the lunar orbit and period of revolution about Earth to increase.
... still making sense RD
Oh, I forgot this one when I created this thread:Why that information about the moon leaving the Earth its not in the school books?