The moon's velocity in its orbit around the earth is far below escape velocity which you correctly give as ~ 25000 mph. The moon has an elliptical orbit so the calculation of velocity depends on where in the ellipse it happens to be, but an approximate average velocity can be calculated by assuming the orbit is a circle 240000 miles in radius or 480000 miles in diameter (d).

So it travels PIxd miles in 28 days or

3.1416x480000/28x24 miles in one hour

or about 2244 mph.

You can convert this to cm/sec if you want.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: DaveC on 2002-04-02 08:15 ]</font>