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The Moon Contradiction?
Well I just watched a documentary about the moon, and a noticed quite the contradiction.
1. The Moon stabilises our axis
2. The Moon has slowed down the Earth's Rotation due to the tides
3. As the Earth slows down, its axis becomes more and more unstable.
So the moon both stabilises and destabilises the earth's axis.
uhhh ... what?
I am not an idiot, i have taken a high school physics class.
I know the 3 things are true, that's not the contradiction.
The contradiction is that the moon stabilises our rotation, but it also slows it down, and thus destabilising it. So our earth would be just as stable without the moon, because it would be rotating faster (assuming the impact that created the moon still occurred).
3 Answers
- AdamKadmonLv 79 years agoFavorite Answer
No contradiction. You just typed your own answer.
1. The Moon DOES stabilize our orbit. Because our moon is such as large fraction of our size, it gives us a stable axis and unlike Mars with no large moons, we don't have an equator that winds up near our North Pole.
2. The Moon HAS slowed down the Earths rotation over the last 4 Billion years. We can tell from sedimentary rocks that the Tides came much more frequently Billions of years ago and that the Earth's rotation (our day) was around 8 hours long near its beginning. Over the last 4.5 Billion years, the drag the Moon has on our earth has slowed that rotation to our present 24 hour day.
3. Just like a spinning top that starts to wobble worse when it slows down, our earth will one day do the same. But, it will be around the time the Sun swells to swallow the earth's orbit, and also around the time the Moon moves far enough away from the Earth (about 1 inch per year) so that it flies away into the Solar System, free from the Earth. In other words, about the same time the Moon breaks out of the earth's orbit, both it and the earth will be destroyed by the Sun, so no big deal.
When you swing something tied to a string around and around your head, you can feel it wanting to "fly away." That's the same thing the Earth does to the Moon. When first created, the Moon was a mere 50,000 miles from the earth. Presently its 250,000 miles from the earth (okay, close to that). It would have appeared 17x larger then and pulled the tides (actually the land too) hundreds of yards into the sky while that close.
- ?Lv 79 years ago
Dont think the moon slowing the earths rotation destabilises its axis of rotation
It AINT like a spinning top
The moons axis of rotation is very stable although the moon rotates very slowly (compared to earth)
- PastaBellaLv 79 years ago
It means that the perfection of the world in which we live is dependent upon the moon, however, with time, the slow and gradual effects of the moon will have a more negative impact on us.
Consider this metaphor: Having clear skies for a month being great for the first week or two, but slowly the plants will wilt and they will eventually die.
