Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
> Warp wrote:
> >   The Sun asserts a certain gravitational influence on the Earth-Moon system.
> > That doesn't affect how the Earth and the Moon influence each other.

> If the moon drifts far enough from the earth, the gravity from the sun will 
> be stronger than the gravity of the earth, so something strange is likely to 
> happen.

  I'm not a physicist, but I still think you have got some errors in your
thinking.

  You seem to think that the Sun exerting a gravitational force on the Moon
larger than the Earth does is somehow significant, but I don't think that's
how it works. In fact, I think it doesn't matter too much whether the Sun's
gravitational pull is stronger or weaker than the Earth's. (The difference
might affect the speed at which things happen, not whether they happen at
all.)

  There might be some tidal forces in play, caused by the Sun's gravitational
pull being stronger for the object closer to it (when it is closer to it)
than the other object, which is farther from it, but that doesn't have
anything to do with the Sun's gravitational pull being larger than the
Earth's.

  I don't know how strong the tidal forces caused by the Sun are at the
altitude of the Earth-Moon system, but I bet it's not very strong, and
probably won't rip the system apart (or else it would probably have done
so already).

  But as said, I'm not a phycisist. A pro could be laughing at me right now
for making such foolish statements. :)

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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