CBS's "Salvation"

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August 3rd, 2017 at 1:18:48 AM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569
Quote: DRich
A college roommate of mines father gained notoriety for his theory that we should blow the moon up.


1) The moon stabilizes the tilt of the Earth. I don't know if blowing it up would eliminate the seasons or make them so extreme as to wipe out humanity.
2) Eliminate tides? Good, bad, indifferent? I can't tell
August 3rd, 2017 at 5:56:20 AM permalink
zippyboy
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 2
Posts: 665
Quote: Pacomartin
2) Eliminate tides? Good, bad, indifferent? I can't tell

Why don't we have tide power yet? We have solar, wind, nuclear, wood, oil, all that....but no one harnesses the current of the tides. The tides never stop. We're missing out somehow on that energy source. Paco?
August 3rd, 2017 at 6:00:26 AM permalink
AZDuffman
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 135
Posts: 18136
Quote: zippyboy
Why don't we have tide power yet? We have solar, wind, nuclear, wood, oil, all that....but no one harnesses the current of the tides. The tides never stop. We're missing out somehow on that energy source. Paco?


Some places use it, problem is how to harness it? One way is a coastal place captures the tide when it comes in, dams it up as it goes out, then grabs power. Problem is only good for so many hours a day and that is irregular. Another thing I saw was the tide turned some kind of paddlewheel kind of thing. Problem was you might need thousands of them.
The President is a fink.
August 3rd, 2017 at 6:17:47 AM permalink
Nareed
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 346
Posts: 12545
Quote: Pacomartin
2) Eliminate tides? Good, bad, indifferent? I can't tell


There are all sorts of lifeforms at the coasts and in wetlands nearby, adapted to the shifting tides. Also some harbors depend on tides in order to operate, though I'm not sure how this works.

The tides are most responsible for slowing the Earth's rotation. So that slowdown would happen far more slowly than it is now (you still have the Sun's tides, unless you blow that up as well).

But then if you blew up the Moon, the pieces would coalesce into a ring occupying the Lunar orbit. Some might escape entirely, some would crash down here, bus most would go into the ring.

And let's not get into how in hell would you blow up a world that size. It seems it would be far easier to move it, if you want to call it easy.
Donald Trump is a one-term LOSER
August 3rd, 2017 at 8:16:56 AM permalink
Fleastiff
Member since: Oct 27, 2012
Threads: 62
Posts: 7831
Tidal estuaries and marshes are the great protein pumps of the world.

Some places do harvest tidal power.
August 3rd, 2017 at 8:22:15 AM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569
The effect of tides are secondary to seasons.

If the current tilt of the Earth halved from 23 degrees to 12 degrees it seems like it would be not so bad. Warmer winters and cooler summers don't sound like it would change humanity.

But if it doubled from 23 degrees to 46 degrees we would have blazing hot summers and freezing winters. It is difficult to believe that humanity would survive in anywhere near it's present numbers.

So if you vaporized the moon, it is not immediately clear what would happen to the tilt of the Earth.

====

Revealed: How the U.S. planned to blow up the MOON with a nuclear bomb to win Cold War bragging rights over Soviet Union
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2238242/Cold-War-era-U-S-plan-bomb-moon-nuclear-bomb-revealed.html
August 3rd, 2017 at 10:01:36 AM permalink
Dalex64
Member since: Mar 8, 2014
Threads: 3
Posts: 3687
Quote: zippyboy
Why don't we have tide power yet? We have solar, wind, nuclear, wood, oil, all that....but no one harnesses the current of the tides. The tides never stop. We're missing out somehow on that energy source. Paco?


Tides have low pressure / low potential energy. Like AZ said, some places have put in paddle wheels, others have put in dams with a small turbine at the bottom, but since the water has such low pressure, you can't put much load on the device generating electricity, so you can't get much power out of them unless you have a LOT of low-load generators hooked up. Very expensive.

Large rivers, like the Mississippi or the St. Laurence Seaway, might be a better bet, but you would still need a lot of paddle-wheels. If you tried to draw too much power off of the generator, the wheel simply wouldn't spin.
"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts." Daniel Patrick Moynihan
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