^^^ (WRT to far site of the moon)
The tidal locking concept of why we only see one side of the moon always was something I stumbled upon only a few years ago and thanks to Youtube, there were videos to demonstrate this concept.
I remember it extremely well .. when for the *first* time humanity got a glimpse of the far side of the Moon -- during the Soviet Luna 3 mission. It captured and transmitted photographs of the lunar far side in October 1959. This achievement was a significant milestone in space exploration and a major news event during that era.
Luna 3, was an automatic spacecraft equipped with cameras and other scientific instruments. It performed a flyby of the Moon and transmitted photographs of about 70% of the far side back to Earth. These images provided the first-ever views of the side of the Moon that is never visible from Earth. The news was met with international attention and excitement. It marked a technological achievement and a breakthrough in space exploration. The images captured by Luna 3 were grainy and lacked the detail we are familiar with today but it was *very* exciting.. top news in all the newspapers..
(For aam janta - and reporters - they got to understand the 'far' side for the first time.... and after Apollo 11 landing, it also became a common knowledge that 'earth' from moon does not rise or set (like all heavenly bodies do) , but just remains at a stationary place..)
I would wager that most high school Physics teachers (and probably a good number of college level Physics staff) in India were probably clueless about this phenomenon...
I would like to think that most high school physics teacher ought to know that...anyway ,,, here is what I would do .. (or think most people ought to know that):
this phenomena of tidal locking is not true for moon only,,, It is quite common in our solar (and other solar systems too)...
For example apart from our moon:
Mercury is also tidally locked to the Sun. This means that it rotates on its axis exactly three times for every two orbits it completes around the Sun. As a result, its day is longer than its year, and it exhibits a unique rotation pattern.
Venus: Venus is almost tidally locked to the Sun. It rotates very slowly and in the opposite direction of its orbit, so its rotation period is longer than its orbital period. While it's not fully tidally locked, it exhibits a similar phenomenon known as "resonant rotation."
Pluto and Charon: The dwarf planet Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, are tidally locked to each other. They both always show the same face to each other as they orbit around a common center of mass.
Some Exoplanets: Tidal locking is common among exoplanets (planets outside our solar system) that orbit close to their host stars. Many of these exoplanets are expected to be tidally locked due to their proximity to their stars and the gravitational interactions between them.
And for moons of other planets in our solar system:
Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto (Jupiter's Moons) Io, one of Jupiter's largest moons, is not tidally locked to Jupiter, but it is in a state of synchronous rotation. This means that Io's rotation period is the same as its orbital period around Jupiter. However, unlike most tidally locked bodies, Io's rotation is not locked to its parent planet's gravitational pull alone. The strong tidal interactions between Io, Jupiter, and the other Galilean moons create complex interactions that result in Io's synchronous rotation.
Other three large moons of Jupiter, collectively known as the Galilean moons, are tidally locked to Jupiter. This means that they always show the same face to Jupiter as they orbit the planet. The gravitational interactions between these moons and Jupiter have caused them to become tidally locked over long periods of time.
Triton (Neptune's Moon): Triton, Neptune's largest moon, is tidally locked to Neptune.
(Wish we had more astronomy in our schools for such interesting facts..
)