Question

The earth gravitationally attracts the moon. Explain why the moon does not fall into the earth.

(use Newton's law of universal gravitation to explain)

Answer 1

Moon does not fall into the earth because moon is never still. It constantly moving around us. Without the force of gravity from the earth ,it would just float away into deep space.Earth attracts it with gravity but moon also moves fast enough to avoid falling on earth.

The moon is orbiting around earth and it has certain period.The centripetal force which is responsible for orbital motion is provided to the moon by gravitational pull of earth.

mV2/ r = GMm / r2   m= mass of moon and M= mass of earth ,G= Gravitational constant ,r= radius of orbit