Full G on the Moon or other small bodies?

On Jan 12, 2007, at 15:51 UTC, Jake wrote:

> > > How?? How about throwing the moon out of it's orbit.. Maybe away
from
> > > the earth or maybe towards the earth.. Either way would be very
bad...
>
> > Impossible.
>
> Impossible?? Is that anything like how impossible it is to have any
> effect on our own planet??

If by "effect" you mean altering Earth's orbit (as in the lunar case
under discussion above), then yes. If you disagree, please explain how
you think we have/could alter Earth's orbit through our activities.

If you're trying to change the subject to one of ecosystem or climate
disruption, please note that the Moon has neither ecosystem nor climate.

You're displaying innumeracy here... the numbers are too big to easily
grasp, so you're trying to just guess what will happen based (most
likely) on bad SF movies you've seen. If you're taking physics this
year, ask your teacher to work through with you exactly what would be
required to alter the Moon's orbit by even a few m/sec. Then ask what
would be required for the Moon to either collide with the Earth or
achieve escape velocity, and compare these to something like, say, the
entire energy output over the history of human civilization. Both
numbers are large, but one is astronomically larger than the other.

> Many many people including some so called "scientist" believe this
> is impossible too... Even though the evidence is overwhelming...

No real scientist believes climate change is impossible; as you say,
we've already done it. But we were discussing altering the Moon's
orbit, not its (non-existent) climate.

Cheers,
- Joe

Joe Strout -- joe@...