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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: What is the effect on the moon's orbit of harvesting tidal energy?
« on: 21/05/2017 04:14:35 »
According to my calculations, the Moon gains about 3.826 x 10^18 joules from the Earth due to tidal action every year. It gains 7.564 x 10^18 joules of gravitational potential energy due to the increase in distance from the Earth (3.82 centimeters per year) and loses 3.738 x 10^18 joules of kinetic energy due to the slowing of its orbital speed. That assumes I didn't make any kind of calculation error. The Moon has been doing this for billions of years and will continue to do it for hundreds of millions of years yet. Of course, the rate has varied in the past (it would have taken energy from the Earth at a much faster rate in the distant past when it was much closer to the Earth). In the future, that rate will slow down. The rotational kinetic energy of the Earth is 2.138 x 10^29 joules.
It's pretty safe to conclude that nothing humans could do in the immediate future would come remotely close to exhausting such a resource.
It's pretty safe to conclude that nothing humans could do in the immediate future would come remotely close to exhausting such a resource.
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