Does The Moon Really Orbit The Earth?

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What holds the moon up? Moonbeams!
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According to Newton's law of gravitation, the sun should "pull" way harder on the moon than the Earth does. So does the moon actually orbit the Earth? Why?

Special thanks to Ariel for submitting this awesome question to our Facebook page!

Hill Spheres and lunar orbit: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/bad...

True shape of moon's orbit: http://www.math.nus.edu.sg/aslaksen/t...

Newton's law of gravitation vs. Hill Sphere: https://van.physics.illinois.edu/qa/l...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_sphere

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It's Okay To Be Smart is written and hosted by Joe Hanson, Ph.DFollow me on Twitter: @jtotheizzoe
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Joe Hanson - Creator/Host/Writer
Joe Nicolosi - Director
Amanda Fox - Producer, Spotzen IncKate Eads - Associate Producer
Stephen Bohls - Editing/Motion Graphics/Animation
Katie Graham - Director of Photography
John Knudsen - Gaffer

Theme music:
"Ouroboros" by Kevin MacLeod

Other music via APM

Stock images from Shutterstock, stock footage from Videoblocks

French subtitles by Alessandro Dal Cero

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