Naked Science Forum
General Science => General Science => Topic started by: Leo Garcia on 15/12/2008 11:12:01
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Leo Garcia asked the Naked Scientists:
Dear Naked Scientist,
If the Earth didn't have the moon, how different would things be?
Would not having the tides make our landscape dramatically different to what it is now? As for us, how would we have adapted to nocturnal life (like we have to some extent through rod photoreceptors) without a major light source? Would we rely more on senses other than sight like raccoons using touch, bats using hearing etc.?
Best wishes
Leo Garcia
What do you think?
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The moon stabilizes Earth's motion, without it the seasons on Earth could become unpredictable (chaotic)..
if the Moon were not present, the torque exerted on the Earth would be smaller, and the chaotic zone would then extend from nearly 0° up to about 85°. Thus, had the planet not acquired the Moon, large variations in obliquity resulting from its chaotic behaviour might have driven dramatic changes in climate. In this sense one might consider the Moon to act as a potential climate regulator for the Earth.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v361/n6413/abs/361615a0.html
The ocean tides (driven by the moon) enriched and agitated the primordial soup from which life evolved.
Perhaps life on Earth would have been slower to form, or not form at all, without the influence of the moon.
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How about events that led up to having the moon - since the moon is a product of a collision, what would the earth be like if that collision had not happened? It is conceivable that life would not have begun....
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AS the moon is slowly moving away from the Earth, does that mean that seasons will gradually become more urepdictable & chaotic?
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Andy Williams would never have sung 'Moon River', it would have just been 'River', not quite the same impact.
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Andy Williams would never have sung 'Moon River', it would have just been 'River', not quite the same impact.
[:D]
"Blue, blue, blue, blue ......er" (Showaddywaddy)
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And what would teenagers do to other teenagers out of the back of a minibus?
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...and all you could drink in the deep south was "shine".
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The extremes of tidal heights (neaps and springs), due to the Sun / Moon combination has produced conditions on the margins of the sea which would have 'encouraged' / selected the move from aquatic to land based living. There was a fantastic advantage to being able to cope with two weeks' worth of drying out and it must have accelerated that particular development.
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People, when exposing their bottoms to other people as a gesture, would have to find new verb to describe their action.
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People, when exposing their bottoms to other people as a gesture, would have to find new verb to describe their action.
SC already mentioned that
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The Unification Church members would be calied " ies".
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No "loonies" either, (well the word would not exist).
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...and poaching could be difficult. [:I]
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Why would it affet how you cook eggs?
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The lunatics would be unable to take over the asylum and selenium would have to be called something else.
On a slightly more scientific note, horseshoe crabs would be in trouble.
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Why would it affet how you cook eggs?
Is that affet as in 'affect'? (FOG)
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If we didn't have the moon, the earth would have been pulled into the sun in 1957.
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Interesting notion. Where did that idea originate. From?
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Without the moon how frequent would PMT (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premenstrual_syndrome) be ?
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Without the moon how frequent would PMT (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premenstrual_syndrome) be ?
I shudder to think!
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If we didn't have the moon, the earth would have been pulled into the sun in 1957.
[:o]... and.... and... we'd never would have had the 60's.......
does not bear thinking [V]
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I was FOGged by a FOG.
Good spot.
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we would not exist because the vampires would have terminated with the human kind. [::)]