Tide Locked

I'm an astronomy (and cosmology) nerd. Love the stuff. Just before I left the Corps, I applied and was accepted to Cornell, where I wanted to study under Sagan and his merry band of geniuses. Unfortunately, I was broke, white and male. No Cornell for me. So my lifelong interest got sidelined to a hobby, and I spend my days slaving away in the salt mines of middle American industry, just like everybody else who is white and male. On the upside, it pays a helluva lot better than astronomy. Which is good, considering the tax burden I have to carry in order to pay for all those non-workers...

Anyway, I have from time-to-time tried to explain the concept of tide locking to interested parties, (well, they feigned interest at any rate -- probably to divert me off a drunken rant about dark matter nonsense), but I've found that it is not nearly as easy to explain as one might think. It's a very common phenomenon; most smaller moons are tide locked to their planets and Mercury is tide locked to the sun. It's easy to see the effect: you always see the same side of the Moon. But how does it happen? Well, that's a bit complex. So if you Want To Know, this is the most succinct and easy to understand explanation I've read.