Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
> I had read in a reliable source that the moon is actually more attracted to 
> the Sun than the Earth when it's at eclipse, but I never did the math 
> myself, and I'm too lazy to look at the math here to see if that's 
> sufficient to disrupt the orbit anyway. :-)

  As I have said many times already, the Sun's gravitational pull being
stronger than the Earth's is inconsequential. The Sun's gravitation is
affecting *both* the Moon and the Earth at the same time, as a whole.
They are both "falling" at the same rate. Thus it doesn't really matter
what this rate actually is (at least not at Earth's altitude).

  Think of it like this: At midday the Sun's gravitation effect on *you*
is stronger than the Earth's. However, that doesn't mean you are going to
be pulled out of Earth. (The reason is that the same gravitation is *also*
affecting the Earth.) Easier to understand it like this?

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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