beansbaxter
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posted May 06, 2004 09:05 AM
What if the Earth was a cube?
I always imagine "what if the earth was a cube?"
It would be really neat to climb to the 8 corners because they would get steeper and steeper.
And I guess there would be 6 oceans, one on each side.
   
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vozizm
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posted May 06, 2004 09:06 AM
WOW!
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MadMike
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posted May 06, 2004 09:07 AM
beans, how do you come up with this stuff? LOL.. you must take alot of acid!
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Otis
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posted May 06, 2004 09:14 AM
What I have always ran through my head in scientific terms is, what would happen if in just one split second, the moon disappeared? Think about that one for a minute. The catastophe's that would follow on a planetary scale would be awesome.
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beansbaxter
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posted May 06, 2004 09:21 AM
Hmmm Otis...I'll have to think on that one for a bit...I'm not really listening to the professor anyways...
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Otis
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posted May 06, 2004 09:23 AM
I'm your professor bitch, you only listen to ME!
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Miklos
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posted May 06, 2004 09:35 AM
Can't say I've evr thought about the earth bein a cube. Better get me some of that BC Bud to expand my thinkin.
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beansbaxter
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posted May 06, 2004 10:29 AM
quote:
What I have always ran through my head in scientific terms is, what would happen if in just one split second, the moon disappeared? Think about that one for a minute. The catastophe's that would follow on a planetary scale would be awesome.
For a split second, the catastrophe would be about the size of a ripple in the ocean. Not much more. Only if it where at night would anyone notice. If it dissapeared for longer, maybe a larger wave would be made. But I dont think that it would be mass world wide disasters.
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Hells Dark Lord
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posted May 06, 2004 10:36 AM
Beans the Moon is a major factor in the tides of the ocean, if you took that force away from it it woudl cause major shifts in the waters of all the oceans, it would be a planetary catasrophe....tidal waves would was over alot of major cities,a dn over some entire countries....and who knows what the world would look like when it all came to rest....all I can say is I hope your nme is Noah,a dn your on a personal level with God....it would be very ugly....
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Otis
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posted May 06, 2004 10:54 AM
Ohhh, young one, you're not thinking things through enough. What is it do you suppose that keeps the earth in such a stable rotation? Granted the earth "swings" to and fro on it's 21.5 degree axis but if there were no moon to keep her stable the earth instead of spinning like a well balanced top it would imediately begin to spin just a toy top that looses speed and starts to wobble uncontrolably. Ifthe moon just flat disappeared the seasons would be no more, there would be climatic changes that would make Global Warming look like bambi and in a quite a short amount of time humanity would be extinct.
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Otis
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posted May 06, 2004 10:55 AM
Here endeth the lesson, now where is my apple biatch!
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frEEk
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posted May 06, 2004 11:06 AM
beans, otis mean if it were to dissapear completely, not just for a microsecond then reappear. definitely be some major tidal waves happening there. quite possibly some earthquakes too as the sudden change in gravity would cause some major shifting in solid ground too. prolly enough to release some stress along faultlines.
dont know about the moon keeping the earth stable tho. i'd say the earth is wobbling BECAUSE of the moon, not in spite of it. mind u, if it were mid wobble and the force that caused that wobble were to dissapear, the momentum of that wobble could indeed continue in it's direction at that moment and turn the world upside down or something. dont know how that woudl effect life on earth tho. our day/night schedule woudl change but i dont know how much. interesting point in any case.
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Otis
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posted May 06, 2004 11:14 AM
Indeed the moon IS what keeps the earth stable freek. No life on earth could survive it's disappearance.
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swft
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posted May 06, 2004 11:44 AM
Yep!
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frEEk
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posted May 06, 2004 12:17 PM
what exactly do you mean by "stable"? i know u wrote that earth would wobble all over the place and we'ed lose seasons, but why? wouldnt the seasons just change their pattern? and why would that bring life to a halt? wouldnt it just change some? perhaps the poles would get warmer cause they'de have more direct exposure ot the sun but then the equatorial regions would coll due to less exposure to the sun. we'd prolyl see a helluva flood and have to adjust where/how we grow food, but seems to me we woudl still be able to survive (not all of us of course but most of us). i'd think the biggest problem woudl be possible melting of the ice caps thus alot less land mass the world over, but again, more arable land mass in the now warmer arctic regions.
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TurboBlew
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posted May 06, 2004 12:36 PM
If the moon disappeared... that would have to be one hell of a cracker...since its made of cheese....lol
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ballisticzx12r
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posted May 06, 2004 01:29 PM
One hell of a cracker, Steve please step away from the pipe...
Barto
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swft
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posted May 06, 2004 01:57 PM
What if Bean's head was a cube?
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beansbaxter
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posted May 06, 2004 02:02 PM
quote:
What if Bean's head was a cube?
let's not go there please
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beansbaxter
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posted May 06, 2004 08:46 PM
 Edited By: beansbaxter on 6 May 2004 21:47
meaning "disappear and not come back", not "blink out of existence for a split-second". I'm not seeing where the catastrophic destruction comes from. Um, the oceans would pretty quickly slosh back to the midpoint between low and high tides... you might get wet if you're standing on a beach and it's low tide where you are. I suppose it could do things to destabilize the Earth's orbit if the center of mass of the Earth-Moon system suddenly changed, but that's a long-term concern, not a short-term one.
if moons could disappear spontaneously that would be quite a catastrophe already Obviously it would have to experience significant trauma to "disappear". Also the word disappear makes your query less profound because it could easily disappear and still have gravitational effects (it disappears everyday because of the earths rotation). It would have to do more than disappear, it would have to disintegrate or become significantly less massive to cause catastrophic effects.
If the moon just disappeared, or was instantly destroyed...would have destructive implications on the entire solar system.
1)The sun - moon - earth gravitational field creates the forces necessary to drive the ocean currents tides or waves. There would be nothing to drive the ocean. Loss of ocean movement would drastically create a temperature differential between the equator & the poles. (Ocean currents, account for 90% of heat distribution process for the earth.) Earth would be uninhabitable.
2)There would be a larger number of small earth / asteroid collisions. The large gravitational field of the moon helps to steer asteroids into the moon, instead of the earth, thus acting as a shield.
But thats only the beginning... heres the good part.
3)Conservation of energy/angular momentum - the balance of the forces internally to our solar system would be destroyed. (Conservation of momentum & attractional forces.) The earth and moon currently orbit each other around a point somewhere within the earth (not at its center as the moon is 25% the mass of the earth) Initially the Earth's orbit of the sun would wobble, causing a slight Wobble in the sun.
This would cause all the other planets orbits to become eratic and possible interact, thus possibly producing a collision or gravitation encounter ejecting a planet from the solar system causing further unbalance in the suns gravitational field. Jupiter would become the controlling mass in our solar system. Eventually the entire solar could be ejected from its current galactic orbit, or the sun torn apart from the full shear of all the unbalanced forces.
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necro
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posted May 06, 2004 09:42 PM
What gotten into you beansbaster. Did you just finish with Finals or something?
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beansbaxter
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posted May 06, 2004 09:55 PM
quote:
What gotten into you beansbaster. Did you just finish with Finals or something?
Just took my last final today! Whoohooo...summer session here I come...
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DB
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posted May 06, 2004 10:06 PM
It's amazing how everything in the world including the human body work together. Your body temp goes up 1 or 2 degrees or down 1 or 2 degrees and your sick. And still people believe in evolution. It's just not possible.
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beansbaxter
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posted May 07, 2004 12:03 PM
Edited By: beansbaxter on 7 May 2004 13:04
Also, for 1) don't forget that the coriollis effect and winds do much more for ocean currents than the moon. And for 2) earth's atmosphere, not the moon, is what shields us from impacts--most of them burn up before they reach the surface.
The primary effect if the moon disappeared, would be that poets would have to find something else to write about, and I would have to stop burying people in the sand in low tide then leaving them there....I mean....did I say that?
Anyway, thinking at another angle... as far as the moon protecting us from asteroids, I'm not sure about that. It's obvious that the moon protects us from stuff coming at us that hits the back of the moon. However, wouldn't there be objects that would have *just* missed the earth but whose paths were deflected into the earth by the moons gravitational field? I'd love to see confirmation some place on this.
Also, while the tides certainly are caused by the moon's gravitational field, I think it's effects on the major currents in the ocean are very minor. (think about it... the tide comes in, the tide goes out, but the gulf stream keeps on going and going and going - it certainly doesn't reverse its path everytime the moon goes by (or rather the earth spins)
Gravity is affected by mass AND distance, the moon has significantly less mass than earth (<2%), but the radius is also much smaller, therefore gravitational effects are ~25% of what one experiences on earth. Look up the equations rather than making poorly founded assumptions (hint, it's the one with G, m1, m2 and r).
The moon has 1/6 of the gravity of earth AT THE MOON"S SURFACE. The earth has a significantly greater effect on other objects passing nearby than the moon does. Instead of the moon shielding the earth, the earth makes a great shield for the moon since it's not only larger, it's got a stronger gravity pull.
I have managed to mention most of these principles haphazardly, however I have failed to apply them where appropriate.
I think it would take a planetary ejection of something the mass of saturn or uranus to cause such a destabilization. Which would "as a result" create the center rotation point of the solar system somewhere outside of the center of the sun, causing the enitre system to wobble and fall apart.
However, since the idea is correct that the earth moon system revolve around each other around some point within the earth, the moon suddenly disappearing could cause the earth to wobble causing a disruption in local weather and climactic patterns. After all...wouldnt an ejection of the moon move the point of revolution of the earth moon system outside of the earths surface? On a monthly basis, the earth would seem to move closer and further from the sun within its orbit? (think of 2 kids holding hands and spinning real fast then they let go and fly apart...they both wobble in a new orbit)
As far as the moon shielding earth from meteors, probably only by a sweeping monthly orbit. Catches anything in its path or orbit before it can get to earth...but I remember reading that that was jupiters roles in the solar system protecting the innter planets...not the moons (or if so...only on a much smaller scale)
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