Quote:
Originally Posted by bojan
If Earth, by some miraculous reason disappeared, the Moon would continue to rotate with the same rate (1 rev per 27 days).
And it would continue to orbit the Sun, of course..
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I'm not so sure this is true. If the earth/moon are tidally locked in a rotation then if the earth was removed there would be no object to provide the centripetal force. The moon would in effect stop it's 27 day rotation.
(unless my analogy of swinging an object on a rope and letting go of the rope is wrong?)