>>11288344>>11288374The earth and moon both rotate. Originally they both rotated at different speeds. Over a VERY long period of time, a couple billion years, the Earths gravity slowed the moons rotation down to match the Earths.
The easiest way to picture this is imagine the moon being directly above the earth, and the side of the moon closest to the earth is being
pulled.by earths gravity the most. Imagine this pull as constantly acting as a brake on the moons rotation.Every second, the earths gravity was "stealing" the moons rotational momentum, until the downward pull of the earth locked that side if the moon in place. Like I said, it is much easier to picture this happening if you assume the moon is falling down to earth from directly above (it technically is, but obviously it orbits).
Another analogy: imagine a swing on a swingset as a point on the surface of the moon. If somebody gives you a REALLY good push so that you do multiple 360 degree rotations, eventually you WILL come to a stop at the lowest point. It works the same way for all celestial bodies.
PS. Simulations are representations of the math. If the math works the simulation will too!
