The moon is trying to escape from Earth’s grasp

The Forces of Nature by Kelland Terry, Ph.D.

Our Moon is moving away from Earth 38.2 centimeters (15 inches) every year. Scientists refer to this as satellite migration. Astrophysicists offer this solution. They believe that ocean tides here on Earth slow down the rate Earth spins on its axis. And in fact, the length of the day is increasing 0.002 seconds per century. What they propose is this: Earth loses momentum every year as its rate of spin decreases because of ocean tides. This momentum is transferred to the Moon which causes the Moon to move away from us. There is an important problem with this interpretation.

Astrophysicists offer us no physical explanation for the transfer of momentum; just that it is transferred, which keeps the sum total of angular momentum constant. Think of a person playing with a hula hoop. The energy of the gyrating individual is transferred to the hoop which causes it to spin. The transfer of energy in this situation is obvious. The individual must be in direct contact with the hoop; otherwise the hoop will stop spinning.

If there is no physical contact between Earth and Moon, why should the movement of our tides influence migration?

Second, some astrophysicists have proposed that the slow spin rate of Venus and Mercury might be due to the tidal interaction between these planets and the Sun. However, tides cannot be responsible for this observation because Venus and Mercury have no oceans, which means tides would have to occur in solid bodies. Or paraphrasing Shakespeare “something must be wrong in Denmark”. Kelland—www.vestheory.com