What would happen if there wasn't a moon?
What does the moon do to the ocean?
What cultures are affected by the moon?
How has the moon shaped our lives?
Are animals affected by the moon?
Does the moon affect our mood?
How many jobs are affected by the moon?
The moon has affected human civilizations for millenia. Many of the civilizations of Sumer, Akkad, etc. have based their calendars on lunar postioning and the waxing/waning cycles of the moon. The moon also affects the tides of our oceans which affects fishermen and anything close to an ocean front. Moonlight also allows us to see at night and has historical impact like the "last harvest" before Thanksgiving. In pop culture a full moon reveals werewolves. More crime also occurs on a night with a full moon.
Thesis: The moon has had a direct impact on human development through climate, civilization development, and cultural references.
· Little is known of how it was formed, its composition, and how it has changed throughout time (lunar.arc.nasa.gov).
· “Tiny metallic core, roughly 15 times smaller than that of Earths” (lunar.arc.nasa.gov).
· Impact theory: 4.5 billion years ago Earth collided with object the size of mars, “ejecting raw material that became the moon” (lunar.arc.nasa.gov).
· Crust is thicker on one side, unknown why (lunar.arc.nasa.gov).
· Distance: 384,403km, 238,857mi. (solarviews.com).
· Rotation and orbit takes 27 days, 7 hours, 43 minutes (solarviews.com).
· Lunar calendars depicted on artifacts, mammoth tusks, etc., as old as 32,000 years (moonlightsys.com).
· Surviving astrological records on oracle bones from the Shang dynasty from fourteenth century B.C.E. (moonlightsys.com).
The Moon
Many theories exist as to how the Earth’s moon came to exist as it does today. The most prominent theory, impact theory, states that about four and a half billion years ago the Earth came into contact with an object about the size of mars. The smaller of the two objects began “ejecting raw material that became the moon” [lunar.arc.nasa.gov]. The young ‘moon’ began orbiting the larger Earth and over time became one of the largest objects visually in the night sky having a direct impact on human development through climate, civilization development, and cultural references.
Without the moon the Earth would rotate uncontrollably and possibly tilt on a 90 degree about the axis. Making one side always facing the sun and burning hot, and the other facing away in darkness which would be very cold. The areas in between would suffer from intense storms do to the temperarture differences. But, we have a moon that acts like “an Olympic thrower” and keeps us locked in our 24 hour days and keeps our tilt which allows for changes of seasons. The friction caused by the two celestial bodies also helps heat the Earth providing heat to the young Earth when it came to mixing the ‘primordial soup’. The primordial soup is what one theory states as the basis for life. When the moon pulls on the Earth it affects the waves causing tides which helped mix the primordial soup allowing life to develop on Earth. The moon acts as a shield, as well, against asteroids and comets protecting the Earth from potentially life threatening impacts. Over the last few billion years the Moon has been the leading factor in transforming our Earth into a comfortable, habitable, little plant.
Perhaps the ever facing Luna was a guardian watching over early man in the night sky, providing protection from darkness and evil. At least, that’s how man saw the moon originally in the sky. The Greeks called her Theia the hunter sister to Apollo, the sun. At night, Theia provided enough light for hunters and even for farmers. This lead many civilizations to develop Lunar calendars as their world ‘revolved around the moon’. And the calendar helped determine when the best time was to hunt, harvest, and if you were close to a waterfront, how the tides were going to be. The Sumerians had one of the original Lunar calendars which led us to have months. Every 27 days two moon cycles complete which represented a month. Every 12 months the Earth would revolve around the sun giving the civilization a base 12. Today, Sumerian numbers can be seen everywhere, some even wear this strange system on their wrist called time. We measure time on a base 12 count, 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day. Without the influence of the moon this system would not exist as we know it. The lunar calendar may have even been around before the Sumerians as artifacts have been found dating to about 25,000 years ago. At this time Lunar calendars were carved into mammoth tusks, reindeer bones, etc. In the Shang Dynasty, c. fourteenth century BCE, oracle bones were carved and used as the calendars. In more recent history the Lunar calendar is still held close by farmers. As the Last Harvest is the last full moon before Thanksgiving, giving growers a little more time to finish their fields before the large feast.
In present day society the moon plays another role, a key to unlocking beasts of the night, or at most in a fun but cheap B-movie. In Van Helsing, ‘werewolves’ show their true side in the light of a full moon. T his has spawned from myths of evil monsters of werewolves and vampires from the middle ages. The light from the moon sheds the cloak the monsters wear allowing all to see what they are inside. In actuality however, be it coincidence or the extra light, more crime occurs on the night of a full moon. This could also be from a built in clock that has been bred into us that tells us the best day to hunt is during a full moon as the light from it allows the hunter to see his prey easily giving him prime chance for a kill and dinner.
Throughout the years, the moon has shaped our lives, be it from giving a climate able to sustain life, affecting how our early civilizations developed, and even giving us humorous, cult classics to watch every Halloween. So, the next time you see her ever knowing smile in the night sky, be sure to thank her, because without her, you surely would not be the person you are today.
