Tag: Physics


The gravity on the Moon

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Gravity is the force of attraction of bodies. Its intensity depends on the mass: the more mass, the higher the gravity.  This is the reason why the gravitational pull is greater on Earth than on the Moon, because Earth is considerably larger and heavier than the Moon. The gravitational acceleration on Earth is with approx. 9.8 m/s² six times as strong as on the Moon with approx. 1.6 m/s². This is why astronauts are able to jump higher on the Moon than on Earth and objects fall to the ground at a lower speed.

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Moon influences hunting behaviour of lions

Lions mostly hunt in the dark, as predators have more of an advantage if it is as dark as possible. Hence, the moonlight is a disturbing factor, because it makes the predators easily detectable by their prey. And when the full moon is actually in the sky, it then so happens, that the lions occasionally come away empty-handed. Thus commences a time at full moon (and shortly before), where the lions begin to starve and hence their urge to hunt increases.

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The Moon on the run?

When looking at the Moon, how slowly it travels across the night sky, one could easily forget that we are moving with a staggering speed through space with our Earth and our Moon. Furthermore, there is the rotation of the orbs to each other, which remains hidden from our senses as well. Only the mind knows of these astronomic connections and only for a short period of time (measured by our existence).

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Is the moonlight white or blue?

As is generally known, the moonlight is actually sunlight reflecting from the surface of the Moon and reaching us here on Earth. You ask yourself the question, whether the moonlight may have a different colour than the sunlight, especially since a nightly scenery usually appears to be bluish. Also movie scenes, are portrayed in blue and so are many pictures and photographs. We would like to forestall the answer: the moonlight is nearly white. The night appears blue due to other reasons.

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The Moon and the tides (ebb and flow)

It is well known that the tides are caused by the tidal forces that are formed through gravity between the Earth and the Moon (and also between the Earth and the Sun). To put it simply, you can say that the Moon moves masses of ocean waters. At the full moon and the new moon, the Sun, the Moon and the Earth are roughly in alignment, hence, the forces are greater and cause so-called spring tides, thus a slightly higher tide. Now, many people conclude that the Moon – and in particular the full moon – ought to move and influence us people accordingly, because our bodies consist mostly of water. This claim contains several errors in reasoning, which we would like to explain in the following.

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