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Letters: Why the moon matters

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Re “Long night? It was, by a second,” July 1

You tell us that timekeepers have added a leap second to our clocks to match the Earth’s spin, saying we are rotating “a bit slowly.” The phrase should have been that we are rotating a bit slower and will continue to do so.

The moon, which has a tremendous gravitational effect on our planet, is moving away at the rate of nearly three inches per year, and as it does so, Earth’s spin slows.

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The moon, which is now 240,000 miles away, was created when the Earth was young, and it loomed as a giant in our skies, being only a few thousand miles away. A complete rotation of our orb took only six hours.

All we really have to worry about, though, is these occasional clock adjustments — because by the time the moon no longer influences our planet, we will be long gone.

Alan Linsky

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Beverly Hills

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