Question

If the moon attracts the earth, why does the earth not move towards the moon?

Answer 1

Newton's law of gravitation:

1. It states that any particle of matter in the universe attracts any other particle with some amount of force.
2. Which is varying directly as the product of the masses and inversely as the square of the distance between them.
3. Mathematically

$F\propto \frac{Mm}{d^2}$ where $F$=Force, $M,m$=respective masses. $d$=distance between two particles.

Explanation:

1. The earth and the moon attract each other with equal gravitational forces.
2. But, the mass of the earth is much larger than the mass of the moon.
3. So, its acceleration rate is much less than the acceleration rate of the moon towards the earth.

Hence, the earth does not move towards the moon.