What if the Earth were now in synchronous rotation with the Moon?
That is, suppose that Earth rotated at the same rate that the Moon orbits Earth. What would be different about Earth and life on it?
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answers:
Zheia say: The synchronous 'day' would be 29 days long, so the temperature would rise during the day and get very hot, then very cold during the synchronous night which also lasts 29 nights. The tides would be every extreme - very high on one side but very low on the other. The Moon would always be visible from the same place over one half of the Earth, but remain unseen from the other half. The Moon would still show phases and there may even be eclipses every synchronous orbit although it would depend on how much variation in the orbital plane there would be.
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Ronald 7 say: The Moon has never slowed down, it's Orbit has just got stretched
Tidal braking has been slowing down Earth's Spin Until the Moon has reached its optimum distance
Earth will have slowed that much by then that both will be Tidally Locked, with one face of each constantly facing each other
It is a process that will take Millions of years in the Process and humans could adapt or even have moved by then
But we will never loose our Moon
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Angel Mendez say: we probly all die
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say: Non stop tsunamis
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Jeffrey K say: The moon would always be in the same place in the sky. It would never move. A day would be a month long.
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Paula say: Then one side of earth would always face the moon.
The other side of the earth would never see the moon.
That mirrors the current situation of the moon - one side of the moon perpetually faces earth and the moon's far side is not visible from earth.

Earth's day would be the same length os the moon's day - about 29 of our current earth days.

Tides due to the moon would cease.
But tides due to the sun would continue. The sun's effect on tides is about half that of the moon.

But there would be only one tide each day - a day being about 29 current days long.

But. with daylight lasting 14 days and night lasting 14 days, the surface of the ocean on earth's night side would freeze - thus inhibiting the tides. The ice would melt during daylight, but both polar areas would have much larger areas of permanent ice.

Most plants would die, because they could not cope with 14 days of night. That would apply to tropical area plants and many temperate ones as well.

All plants would eventually die because a 14 day long day is not long enough for plants to grow to maturity and set seeds.

With plants gone, animals would die as well.
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Clive say: Firstly, the Moon would only ever be visible from half the Earth and obviously it would appear never to move off the same spot. As the Earth already does from the Moon.

Secondly, of course this would mean no more tides.

Thirdly, for this to occur, the Earth would have had to slow down to match the Moon's orbital period, which would undoubtedly be longer than it is now - the Moon is slowly moving away from the Earth and to conserve angular momentum, that means a slower orbit. The Earth has already slowed down - there is evidence that in the time of the dinosaurs, the year was more than 400 days long. And atomic clocks show us that they need occasional adjustment to keep accurate because the day is slowly getting longer. Occasionally a leap second is added to keep in step. When this is done, the Greenwich time signal has 7 beeps instead of 6! (Being British, I'm familiar with this on the radio - the BBC often broadcasts it on the hour. "Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beeeeeep. Here is the news, read by [today's newsreader].")

This actually will happen to any pair of orbiting bodies given enough time (Pluto and Charon have already achieved complete tidal locking as they're more equal in size), and the evidence is there now. The Earth IS slowing already and will continue to do so until this state of orbital mechanics nirvana is reached. At which point, the length of the Earth day will be something like, I don't know, maybe 3 current Earth months.

Life may have evolved by then to cope with a day that long, we're talking billions of years and that's enough time for almost anything to evolve, but it might not. Mind you, this might not happen at all before the Sun expands to its red giant stage and frazzles us all first. Which seems more likely. Still, the day could be very significantly longer by then, which makes it a fascinating question. Just for one, what would we do about the calendar once we get to the point when the year definitely contains only 364 days or less?

I'm not going to answer about if this were true now as it's obviously not going to happen.
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YKhan say: If the Earth were tidally locked to the Moon as the Moon is to the Earth, then we would only see the Moon from one hemisphere of the Earth. There also would be no more daily tides on the Earth.
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billrussell42 say: That means a day will become 28•24 = 672 hours long.

tides would be much smaller. The side of the earth facing the moon will have a higher sea level than the back side. The back side will be dark at night.

Plants would have trouble growing with 336 hours of light and 336 hours of dark. If they had seen this since plants evolved, they would have evolved for this. A sudden change, and they would be in trouble.

Same for humans, and animals with 336 hours of light and 336 hours of dark.
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Mark say: It will eventually happen, but long after humans are gone. However, the moon will be much closer to Earth at that time, and Earth's rotation will match the moon's rotation, but the Moon's rotation will be must faster.
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Adullah M say: You mean the earth rotate around the sun the same duration as the moon rotate around the earth, In this case the earth complete its rotation around the sun in 29 days instead of 365.25 days.
So I still wonder whether the moon would still be with the earth at that speed of rotation So do not mind about the life on earth.
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Alexander say: They are in sync. That's why we only see one side of the moon all the time.
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CarolOklaNola say: The Moon would not rise or set and would not be visible at all from 41% of Earth's surface. There would still be nutation, libration, and parallax effects AND tides. Some species that live in the intertidal zone might go extinct. Earth and the Moon would be like Pluto and Charon. Up to 42% of Earth's tides are caused by the Sun's mass and gravity.
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Wally say: Think about the reverse ... how would life be on the moon given the current relationship between Earth and Moon?
1) The Earth would "hang" in one place - never an "earth rise" or set
A) BUT if you lived on the "far side" of the Moon you would never KNOW about earth.
2) The Earth WOULD go thru phases every 28 days.
3) BUT the rotation of the Earth each 24 hours WOULD be very observable
4) Except Earth, the Sun and the Stars would all rise and set on a 28 day schedule.

Comments?????
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