Question

Earth’s gravity pulls on the moon and keeps it in orbit.

What does the moon’s gravity do?

1.pulls back on the Earth

2. can only pull on smaller objects such as asteroids but has no effect on the Earth

3. doesn´t affect anything


4. pushes the moon away from the Earth

Answer 1

1.pulls back on the Earth

Step-by-step explanation:

We can answer this question by using Newton's third law of motion, which states that:

"For every object A that exerts a force (action) on an object B, object B exerts an equal and opposite force (reaction) on object A"

In our problem, we can think the Earth as being object A and the Moon as object B.

We know that the Earth's exerts a force (force of gravity) on the Moon, and this force points towards the Earth. According to Newton's third law, the Moon exerts therefore an equal force on the Earth, in the opposite direction (so, towards the Moon). In fact, this reaction force is the gravitational pull that the Moon exerts on the Earth, that is equal in magnitude and opposite in direction to the gravitational pull exerted by the Earth on the Moon.