First power station to harness moon opens

New Scientist ^ | 09/22/03 | Danny Penman

[Arthur McGowan]

Rather than 18,000,000 years, the figure, if all of mankind's energy needs were supplied by tidal generation stations, would probably be something like 0.003682 seconds.

[KellyAdmirer]

This has to affect the snail darters somehow....

[freeeee]

It's probably trying to get away from the second hand smoke.

That, and it heard Hillary might run for President.

[HEY4QDEMS]

I'm sure there is Nor way that you meant to say Norwegia.

[ClearCase_guy]

would probably be something like 0.003682 seconds.

Yes, but it still would mean WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!

[bedolido]

Of course, the moon is already spiraling downward because Earth's tides are not "lossless." Tidal generators will not cause a catastrope that wouldn't otherwise have occurred; they'll just hasten the day of its arrival.

Great... now I gotta worry about moon-crashing into earth insurance.

[Lazamataz]

WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!

No no no no. Font size 7, bold, centered, not in all caps, and four exclamation points. Like this:

We're all gonna die!!!!

[Argh]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA...................

[biblewonk]

What we really need is lots more windmills.

[HEY4QDEMS]

Of course, the moon is already spiraling downward because Earth's tides are not "lossless." Tidal generators will not cause a catastrope that wouldn't otherwise have occurred; they'll just hasten the day of its arrival.

I read in a science article that the moon on average moves about 1 to 1.5 inches further away from it's mother Earth every year.
Not that it will be any less devastating as it is the moon's gravity that keeps the Earth in gyroscopic rotation.
Without the moon, the Earth would orbit the sun in a chaotic tumble.

[Starrgaizr]

Orbital mechanics isn't my thing, but won't the effect be to lock the moon into a geosyncronous orbit? Unless it is too big to remain stable that close to earth. I think we need to tax the Norwegians for accelerating the impending global catastrophe.

[Dan Evans]

Denmark went balls-to-the-wall with windmill power but now these bird blenders are being dismantled because they only make money if they are heavily subsidised. The only reason people are building these alternative energy projects is they hope to clean up on the Kyoto CO2 credits.


http://216.239.33.104/search?q=cache:T4Y--vaUuOkJ:www.wwindea.org/pdf/articles/NewEnergy_Denmark_2-2003.pdf+windmill+dismantled+power+sweden+OR+denmark+OR+norway&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

[js1138]

This will slow down the Moon, causing it to crash into Earth with devastating consequences for women and minorities.

Actually the moon is getting farther away due to tidal forces. Can't do the math myself, but I've been hearing this for a long time.

[Arthur McGowan]

Must have been from Canadia.

[secret garden]

But we like the moon! Juvenile humor warning.

[TomHarkinIsNotFromIowa]

You're quite right, the moon is moving away from the Earth at a rate of about 4 cm per year, however it's due to the action of tides here on Earth. The tides are caused by the effects of the Moon's gravity on the oceans and the Earth. The short explanation uses Newton's law of universal gravitation ( Two bodies attract each other with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. ). This tells us that the water in the oceans closest to the Moon has a greater force on it from the Moon, than the force on the Earth or on the water on the opposite side of the Earth. You get bulges of water on either side of the Earth which are the tides.

The Earth rotates about its axis much more rapidly than the Moon travels arround the Earth. Since the Earth is rotating faster it carries the bulges ahead with it so that the tide is always a little ahead of the Moon. Newton's law said that two bodies attract each other so the bulge is constantly pulling the Moon ahead in its orbit. The effect, the bulge is lifting the Moon into a higher orbit.

This will continue to happen as long as the Earth's rotation is greater that the Moon's revolution arround the Earth. The friction between the oceans and the Earth's surface is constantly slowing the rotation down by about .002 seconds per century. What that means is that many Moons from now, when the length of a day equals about 47 of our current days, the bulges will align directly below the Moon and the separation will cease.

Hope this helps.

Mike Francis

[Stirner]

"The moon is slowly moving away from the Earth, not towards it."

I think you're right, but disaster still looms. Taking part of the tidal energy out of the process will not cause the moon to crash into the earth, but will instead cause the earth to rotate ever more slowly until just one side faces the sun. Estimated time 50 billion years.

[TomHarkinIsNotFromIowa]

This came from the following link:

http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/jul99/932468789.As.r.html

[RightWhale]

This will slow down the Moon, causing it to crash into Earth

It's too late. The moon has already achieved escape velocity. However, the earth's rotation will slow a little quicker.

[ConservativeStandUP]

Why not just have a nuclear powered undersea windmill? Then you could power thousands of homes.