The Moon is no more than ten miles from the Earth

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

I am the first to admit I'm not an astronomer, but I have common sense.

There's a tower about ten miles from my home. On a misty evening I can't see the tower, but I can still see the moon.

Now I'm not saying exactly how far away the moon is. Maybe eight or nine miles? But I call bullshit on these crazy estimates of thousands of miles.

How many times are we supposed to fall for this Rovian BS?

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

1. That's no moon.

That's a battle station!

[htuttle]

6. It's a Trap!

[Subdivisions]

2. The Moon is ~250.000 miles from Earth and is receding at a rate of

~1cm per year.

[YOY]

3. The average distance from Earth to the moon is 384000 km. (238,606.538 miles)

Um....what are you talking about regarding Rovian???

You can see it because it is reflecting a crapload of light from the Sun.

[Occulus]

34. I do believe the OP was snark

That's okay though. We're all taking things a bit too seriously of late...

[YOY]

35. Yeah but snark in relevance to what?

Not too sure man.

[scheming daemons]

4. I wish I knew what you were alluding to. Sounds fascinating

[Kittycat]

5. Did you pull that idea off of a Palin Scientific Quote Generator or something?

[jus_the_facts]

7. Coast to Coast AM much?

:rofl:

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

8. I don't know what you take in your coffee, but I want some.

Things are not always what they seem:

[peacetalksforall]

9. I thought you were going to relate the moon distance to the evangelical 6000 year old planet.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

13. Are you saying the sky isn't a tin dome with holes poked in it for the stars?

Fuck me... now I have to re-write the first eight chapters of my book!

[shireen]

10. where did you hear this?

I'd like to ask them for proof. :P

Seriously, now that you mention it, there's a very cool project called lunar laser ranging run out of McDonald Observatory in West Texas. (The chief scientist was one of my favorite teachers/mentors when I was in college.) The Apollo astronauts left reflectors on the moon. At McD, they point a telescope to the location of those reflectors (not visible from Earth even with the most powerful telescopes), and shoot pulses of laser beams towards it. They have detectors that detect the reflected photons from the moon. Since the speed of light is a constant, and they have a measurement of the time it took for the reflected photons to detected, they can calculate the distance of the telescope to the moon to high accuracy.

Nice explanation of the project at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_laser_ranging_experiment


(from )

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

12. Lasers were used in the Iraq War. Why should I trust them now?

The OP is a parody of the many "I'm no economist, but Ben Bernanke is full of shit" and "Bush lied about Iraq, hence the economy is just fine" threads.

(I may have underestimated the literalism of the DU day-shift)

Something that always amazes me is how early people were talking casually about the distance and weight of the moon (determined with great accuracy) at a time when 99% of people still thought it was a pie plate or something. That level of disparity between what 'everybody' believes (meaning the scientific community) and what the actual everybody believes is jarring.

We get the same thing with evolution today, of course.

There have been posts here this week about how the economy would do better if everyone just stopped spending money, for instance. And people telling other people to keep their money under their bed. It's alarming!

[shireen]

15. LOL! I'm a bit slow ...

But given all the outrageous stuff we're hearing these days, that OP could just as well be real.

I just posted the lunar laser ranging stuff because it's cool. :)

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

17. I didn't know they left reflectors. That's cool.

:hi:

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

18. Perhaps you'd be good enough to provide a link to...

...just one of those threads arguing that "Bush lied about Iraq, hence the economy is just fine."

Relax, man, corporate media will go into hyper fear mongering mode until opposition to this massive bailout scam softens, at which time some sort of gargantuan taxpayer fleecing bill will be passed. It will amount to nothing more than a massive transfer of wealth from the poor and disappearing middle class to the already wealthy, and will fix absolutely NOTHING, but that's OK -- you and Chimpy will be happy, and that's what really matters.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

19. Yes, it's all about me and Chimpy in our jungle love-nest

bye

:hi:

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

20. Gee, what a surprise...

...you seem to have forgotten to provide that link to a thread where someone was arguing that "Bush lied about Iraq, hence the economy is just fine."

You wouldn't by any chance just be making shit up now would you?

[PVnRT]

24. There are plenty of posts

who say that because Bush says it's true, it must be a lie. Take the blinders off.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

25. Most of the threads I've seen are simply suggesting...

...that when the same criminals that pushed so hard for, and got, The Patriot Act, The Military Commissions Act, The Homegrown Terrorists Prevention Act, the invasion/occupation of Iraq, and FISA, are now, at this late hour in their administration, pushing for a rushed through piece of legislation that will place an immense debt burden on the taxpayers, for a Wall Street bailout they claim we need immediately, maybe we should just stop and reflect on how well all the rest of that legislation they've managed to get passed has worked out for us, and not permit ourselves to be rushed into anything.

If you can't see the sense in that, I'd say you're a made-to-order con man's mark.

How many times do you have to be conned by the same people before you become suspicious?

Stop drinking the Koolaid.

[PVnRT]

26. I supported zero of those.

But keep assuming that I drank the Kool-Aid, or whatever it is that makes you feel smug and superior.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

28. And you can keep assuming I'm wearing blinders...

...because I, like most DUers, see this bailout scam and the con artists behind it for what it is and what they are, if that's what makes you feel smug and superior.

[Realityhack]

31. Several posts have compared this to WMD. and calmed it is a manufactured crisis n/t

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

36. And therefore what?

If this poll is any indication, close to 70% of DUers believe Paulson and Bernanke are spearheading what is actually a manufactured crisis and a giant scam on Congress and the taxpayers:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4109057


Dennis Kucinich has indicated he believes it smacks of a manufactured crisis:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS6k369DbA4

[Realityhack]

32. minor little issue.

The speed of light is not a constant. The speed of light in a vacuum is.

[Iggo]

38. Oh, snap!

Scientific smackdown!

Yay-us!

[leveymg]

11. The Moon is Sin

Sin was the Sumerian Moon god.

Sin was worshipped in the city of Ur (southern Iraq). The high priest of his temple, chosen from the royal family, was viewed as Sin's spouse. Sin was the descendant of the sky god An. His parents were the air god Enlil and the grain goddess Ninlil. Sin was depicted as a "fierce young bull, thick of horns, perfect of limbs, with a beautiful bird of blue".

[LanternWaste]

14. And your solution to the placement of the moon would be...?

And your solution to the correct placement of the moon would be...?

[torbird]

16. Best Thread Today

Thanks for the smile.

[muriel_volestrangler]

21. Less than 700 miles away, anyway

Look, I read it in a book:

The distance from London Bridge to the sea-coast at Brighton, in a straight line, is 50 statute miles. On a given day, at 12 o'clock, the altitude of the sun, from near the water at London Bridge, was found to be 61 degrees of an arc; and at the same moment of time the altitude from the sea-coast at Brighton was observed to be 64 degrees of an arc, as shown in fig. 58. The base-line from L to B, 50 measured statute miles; the angle at L, 61 degrees; and the angle at B, 64 degrees. In addition to the method by calculation, the distance of the under edge of the sun may be ascertained from these elements by the method called "construction." The diagram, fig. 58, is the above case "constructed;" that is, the base-line from L to B represents 50 statute miles; and the line L, S, is drawn at an angle of 61 degrees, and the line B, S, at an angle of 64 degrees. Both lines are produced until they bisect or cross each other at the point S. Then, with a pair of compasses, measure the length of the base-line B, L, and see how many times the same length may be found in the line L, S, or B, S. It will be found to be sixteen times, or sixteen times 50 miles, equal to 800 statute miles. Then measure in the same way the vertical line D, S, and it will be found to be 700 miles. Hence it is demonstrable that the distance of the sun over that part of the earth to which it is vertical is only 700 statute miles. By the same mode it may be ascertained that the distance from London of that part of the earth where the sun was vertical at the time (July 13th, 1870) the above observations were taken, was only 400 statute miles, as shown by dividing the base-line L, D, by the distance B, L. If any allowance is to be made for refraction--which, no doubt, exists where the sun's rays have to pass through a medium, the atmosphere, which gradually increases in density as it approaches the earth's surface--it will considerably diminish the above-named distance of the sun; so that it is perfectly safe to affirm that the under edge of the sun is considerably less than 700 statute miles above the earth.



The above method of measuring distances applies equally to the moon and stars; and it is easy to demonstrate, to place it beyond the possibility of error, so long as assumed premises are excluded, that the moon is nearer to the earth than the sun, and that all the visible luminaries in the firmament are contained within a vertical distance of 1000 statute miles. From which it unavoidably follows that the magnitude of the sun, moon, stars, and comets is comparatively small--much smaller than the earth from which they are measured, and to which, therefore, they must of necessity be secondary. and subservient. They cannot, indeed, be anything more than "centres of action," throwing down light, and chemical products upon the earth.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/earth/za/za23.htm

So there.

[kurt_cagle]

22. Dup

[kurt_cagle]

23. No! You're Wrong!!

The Moon is 240K miles from the Earth, but it IS also made from Blue Cheese!! I'm not an economist either, but I know THAT! It's a conspiracy on the part of Kraft Foods - that's why they were put onto the stock market when AIG collapsed ... they were secretly funding the War on Terra!! They wanted to be the BIG CHEESE!!!
:crazy: :banghead:

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

27. John McCain will moon Obama at the next debate

in response to claims that he doesn't interact with him or respect him. The moon will be in everyone's living room.

[KamaAina]

29. Moose-olini can see it from her house!

Which, I suppose, qualifies her to be head of NASA. :eyes:

[jpgray]

30. Nice

[-..__...]

33. We like the mooon...

http://www.rathergood.com/moon_song">Coz it is close to us!

[ColbertWatcher]

37. God had to move the moon further away to keep it from the dinosaurs. n/t