Why Does the Moon Always Face Earth?

The moon always shows the same side to Earth because it spins as it orbits us, and it takes the same amount of time to spin around once as it does to go all the way around Earth. Imagine you're on a merry-go-round, holding onto a ball that's spinning with you. If it takes the same time for the ball to make one full turn as it does for the whole merry-go-round to rotate once, from outside, it would always look like the same side of the ball is facing you. That’s exactly what happens between the moon and Earth.

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Examples

  1. Imagine you're on a merry-go-round, holding a ball. If it spins around once for every full rotation of the ride, from outside it would always look like the same side faces you.

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