I think the reason some people might believe this claim is because we’re taught in school that the moon’s gravity causes the tides. I think the reasoning goes, “well if the moon’s gravity can affect the tides, surely it can affect smaller things too”
Edit: The moons gravity affects everything on the planet. That doesn’t mean it is harmful. It’s going to be very insignificant.
The moon would affect the tides regardless of how long it’s been there. Calculating the effect of the moon’s gravity on the earth is a standard exercise in a graduate classical physics course. In essence, the moon’s gravity “squashes” the earth at the two poles, causing tides at the nearest and farthest end of the earth.
Why is this being upvoted when it is blatantly false?
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Is it time that’s allowed the moon’s gravity to affect the tides? I think it would cause tides even if it suddenly appeared out of nowhere into orbit.
Now, I’d need someone else to explain why the effect on the tides is so visible. I’d suggest that it is because the water in the oceans both has a huge mass and is fluid, so its shape can change easily. There’s a difference between the moon pulling a portion of the water closer to it on one side of the planet and the moon “stretching” a person who is caught between the Earth’s and moon’s gravities.
The bulge on the opposite side of the Earth from the moon is because the Earth is being pulled away from the water.
Maybe bacteria could be affected by the gravity
If the bacteria has a mass of 1 millionth the mass of a human, the gravitational effect the moon has on it, would similarly be 1 millionth the effect it has on a human.
Stupid physics. 🙄
For billions of years. There was once a time when tides were massive and the moon took up most of the night sky (it’s slowly being slingshoted out of orbit and will eventually become a dwarf planet orbiting between earth and mars, but the sun will likely engulf the earth system before that happens)