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I've got a really dumb question, wouldn't large scale mining and transport of resources from earth to the moon slow down the earths rotation due to added mass?

by Aloha 4y ago

jylam 4y ago
I'm not a physicist, but I'd say the mass of the moon slows down the rotation of the earth, so moving the mass from the moon to the earth would make it spin faster (or at least, slow down less).
adlpz 4y ago
Short answer: the Moon is just huge. It's not conceivable that we do any significant change to the mass ratios.
- m33k44 4y ago
  > It's not conceivable that we do any significant change to the mass ratios. You are underestimating humans. Look what we have done to the Earth.
  - superchroma 4y ago
    Look, we can talk about that in a millennium.
  - cwillu 4y ago
    We've managed to moderately fuck up the extremely thin layer of gunk that clings to the surface. Not to diminish the magnitude of that “achievement”, but meaningfully the orbital parameters of the moon is another thing entirely.
- tffcccdredf 4y ago
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
BitwiseFool 4y ago
Not a dumb question at all. Interestingly enough, the moon is already slowing down the Earth's rotation, and it has been doing so for billions of years. Through tidal forces, the moon's orbit is gradually being raised at the expense of the Earth's rotation being gradually slowed. Right now, the same side of the moon always faces the Earth. In the far future, the same side of the Earth would always face the same side of the moon. The day would be much longer and the moon would be much farther away. However this would take about 50 billion years, which is a lot longer than the solar system has left in its current balance. The amount of mass humans would extract from the moon through mining would not change this in any appreciable way because the moon is just too massive.
8note 4y ago
I'd expect it to speed to to conserve the angular momentum. Eg a figure skater pulling their arms in

I've got a really dumb question, wouldn't large scale mining and transport of resources from earth to the moon slow down the earths rotation due to added mass?

by Aloha 4y ago

I've got a really dumb question, wouldn't large scale mining and transport of resources from earth to the moon slow down the earths rotation due to added mass?

jylam 4y ago

I'm not a physicist, but I'd say the mass of the moon slows down the rotation of the earth, so moving the mass from the moon to the earth would make it spin faster (or at least, slow down less).

adlpz 4y ago

Short answer: the Moon is just huge. It's not conceivable that we do any significant change to the mass ratios.

m33k44 4y ago
> It's not conceivable that we do any significant change to the mass ratios. You are underestimating humans. Look what we have done to the Earth.
- superchroma 4y ago
  Look, we can talk about that in a millennium.
- cwillu 4y ago
  We've managed to moderately fuck up the extremely thin layer of gunk that clings to the surface. Not to diminish the magnitude of that “achievement”, but meaningfully the orbital parameters of the moon is another thing entirely.
tffcccdredf 4y ago
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

BitwiseFool 4y ago

Not a dumb question at all. Interestingly enough, the moon is already slowing down the Earth's rotation, and it has been doing so for billions of years. Through tidal forces, the moon's orbit is gradually being raised at the expense of the Earth's rotation being gradually slowed. Right now, the same side of the moon always faces the Earth. In the far future, the same side of the Earth would always face the same side of the moon. The day would be much longer and the moon would be much farther away. However this would take about 50 billion years, which is a lot longer than the solar system has left in its current balance. The amount of mass humans would extract from the moon through mining would not change this in any appreciable way because the moon is just too massive.

8note 4y ago

I'd expect it to speed to to conserve the angular momentum. Eg a figure skater pulling their arms in