You've Got To Laugh Haven't You?
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Is the Earth pulling away from the Sun - and is the Moon pulling away from the Earth, gradually distancing themselves from each other?
Were they all closer together in the far distant past?
I've read a lot of the previous answers to similar questions and I'm under the impression that The Universe is a Giant Snooker Table, set up by some "Intellegent Designer" who's having a laugh at our expense!
Tom.
No best answer has yet been selected by Outdoorsman. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.Im no Astronomer, but i was under the impression that the planets in our solar system all orbit around the Sun. The moon is not one of those, it orbits around the Earth. I don't think that the Earth is pullin away from the sun, but im not 100% sure!
Overall the universe is expanding, supposedly at the speed of light - pretty fast!! Originally, the planets would have been made up from lots of bits from exploding stars, which started to stick together over millions of years. This is just off the top of my head, so it's prob not right.
Also, I think that everything within the universe moves because of the attraction to other objects. Would be good to hear an answer from someone with a lot more knowledge...
It's funny, when I was back at school our teacher told us that because of the gravitaional forces the Moon was falling into the Earth and Earth into the Sun.
Needless to say he was completely wrong. Some often use centrifuge forces to demonstrate it, however it is much more complicated than that.
Hope this helps a bit.
http://www.answers.com/topic/tidal-acceleration
S.
I think what you may be referring to is the Milankovitch cycle.
There are variations in the earth's orbit and angle of inclination. (other planets too)
There is a quite strong 100,000 year cycle which seems to match the frequency of ice ages quite well
Right now the earth's orbit is quite circular at between 94.5 and 91 million miles (3% variation) but it can be double this or nearly zero
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milankovitch_cycle
There are lots of forces at work within the Solar System which cause the distances between various bodies to vary. Some of them have already been mentioned.
As far as the Earth-Moon relationship goes, the moon�s orbit (in common with most heavenly bodies) is elliptical, so its distance from the earth varies over the course of a lunar month simply because of this. However, in the much longer term the moon is definitely moving away from the earth and clanad provides information to support this. This is caused by the tidal effect the moon has upon the earth which distorts its shape from spherical and slows its rate of rotation. Eventually the earth will become tidally locked with the moon. Its period of rotation (currently 24 hours) will eventually equal the period of the moon's orbit around the earth (currently 28 days) with the result that the same part of the earth will always face the moon. (This has already happened to the moon).
As this is happening the Earth's rotation is gradually being slowed down by the Moon, and the Moon is slowly receding from Earth as Earth's rotational momentum is transferred to the Moon's orbital momentum.
Also, Outdoorsman, be careful! The teaching of "Intelligent Design" has recently been ruled illegal in the USA !!! I wouldn't like to hear that you'd been carted off to Guantanamo Bay !!!
JudgeJ, not exactly (re 'Intelligent Design')
It was not ruled illegal in the US. As a matter of fact Bush is a devoted Intelligent Design follower.
Pennsylvania, has a very strong Evangelical Christian following and was one of the first states to introduce Intelligent Designs to the schools' curriculum. Evangelicals completely oppose idea of evolution and question modern science in general. That is why they have substituted science lessons with Intelligent Design. However, it has been since ruled "unconstitutional" and the teaching of Intelligent Design was banned from schools in Pennsylvania.
Still Intelligent Design is very much legal (as long as you don't teach it in States schools), alive and growing and I believe its followers are going to appeal the decision. And ,hey, if the President supports it, you never know, it might just make it back to schools.
S.
Sounds like a job for OFSTED to me rather than one for the Government.
OFSTED refused to reinspect the school in 2002 saying they were satisfied with answers they got in a letter!
I've just read their OFSTED report and can't believe what I've seen. I've seen a few of these in my time but nothing like this - it's nothing short of fawning.
It was performed by Westminster Education consultants.who were bought in 2001 by VT technologies Oh look Baroness Tessa Blackstone is on the board of VT wasn't she minister for Education up to 2001?
How cosy!
Thanks for the bed time reading Jake. Looking forward to a bit of fiction.
I honestly don't have anything against RE in secondary schools. It's nice for the kids to have an understanding about all kinds of religions. And they are old enough to make their own minds about it. But I found out last month that my daughter was taught how God made Earth and Men and so on. And she is only 5. What does she know? And I have a hell of a time afterwards trying to explain to her that it is not necessarily the truth but something some people believe in like fairytales. This was in the reception class of a state school. Long story there, but how could you possibly argue with them. It's just frustrating. But it looks like I don't have much say since I am in an atheist minority.
S.