Does the Solar System Make Us Crazy, Too?

Ah, what strange things happen when the Moon is Full! 

Teachers notice that their pupils get extra fidgety.  Emergency Room calls spike.  We fall in love.  Wolves howl.  Maybe it's just the extra moonlight.  Maybe not. 

According to Hannah Holmes's anecdotal essay on "Lunacy" there's no scientific agreement on why it occurs, or even if it does.  But let's suppose that if the tidal forces exerted by the Sun and Moon can, once or twice a month, cause unusually high and low tides worldwide, those same tidal forces can also affect our brains.  

 Maybe the grey matter swells inside our skulls.  Maybe the nucleus of each brain cell rises imperceptibly skywards. Maybe our neurotransmitters bend towards the moon. Who knows?  We do know that oceanic tides result from the gravitational forces of the Sun and Moon. Those G-forces peak when the sun the earth and the moon are lined up at Full Moon and, to a lesser extent, at New Moon.  

 G-forces can also result from a sudden acceleration or deceleration, as any rider of a BMW, roller coaster, or space shuttle launch rocket can attest.   According to Albert E, you can't tell the difference between the gravity pull of a distant body or the push of a rocket.  The G-force feels exactly the same.

If gravitational G-forces induce Local Lunacy, I suggest that the solar system's movement through the Galaxy causes similar G-forces that might also make us crazier than normal!

Those G-forces, faint as they may be, peak twice a year at the  Galactic Full Moon and New Moon.

 

Galacticity.  

At 230 Kilometers Per Second, what happens when you step on the brakes, or the gas?

Kate Becker at Cornell estimates the total speed of the earth through our section of the universe at 900 kilometers per second or about  2,013,330 miles per hour.

Of that, about 640 km/sec is the constant velocity of the Milky Way through nearby galactic clusters.

The sun and the solar system whiz around the periphery of our own galaxy, the Milky Way, at about 230 km/sec.

The earth orbits the sun at 30 km/sec.

(A point on the equator rotates around the center of the earth at a negligible .5 km/sec.  The north and south poles are stationary.)

640 + 230 + 30 = 900 km/sec.  

Sometimes the earth orbits in the same direction as the solar system's path.  We increase speed from 230 to 260 km/sec.  At other times the earth orbits in the opposite direction and we decelerate to only 200 km/sec.  

In the diagram above, the entire solar system moves left to right at 230 km/sec.  The earth moves counterclockwise around the sun and achieves that same 230 km/sec speed only twice a year.   

At all other times the earth accelerates or decelerates relative to the speed of the solar system.  

The greatest speed change occurs in the "northwest" quadrant when the earth accelerates from 200 to 230 km/sec, a net change of +15%. The least change occurs in the "southwest" quadrant when we slow down 11.5% from 260 to 230 km/sec.

Oddly enough, the moment when the earth is moving slowest - only 200 km/sec - may be the Galacticity equivalent of a Full Moon.   

At due North on the diagram we reverse from a -13% deceleration mode into a +15% acceleration mode.  At due South (new moon?) we shift from +13% to -11.5%.  At the East and West cusps there's no momentum shift.   

All these galactic velocity changes are proportionately the same as going from 65 mph to 75 mph to 65 mph in your car, but the actual speeds are just a wee bit higher:

30 km/sec = 67,110 mph
200 km/sec = 447,400 mph
230 km/sec = 514,520 mph
260 km/sec = 581,630 mph
640 km/sec = 1,431,700 mph

Galacticity is the G-force associated with these constant changes in speed.  

Can you feel it?  No.  Galacticity is a slow and subtle phenomenon. Does it affect you?  Maybe.  Does the Full Moon? 
 

Galacticity is well-known to helicopter pilots.  Say the tips of a whirlybird's rotor spin at 300 mph and the chopper itself is moving forward at 100 mph.  On one side of the chopper, the rotor tip cuts through the still air at 400 mph (300 + 100). The opposite tip cuts through at 200 mph (300 - 100).  That creates more lift on one side of the copter and with it some interesting pitch and yaw effects.  Now think of the orbiting earth as the tip of a slow gravitational rotor mounted on the sun. 

Galactic Lunacy is a possible side-effect of Galacticity.

 I grew up north of Boston where the "high high tide" or spring tide at full moon is about 11 feet.  At half moon the "low high tide" or neap tide is about 8 feet.  The average high tide is about 9.5 feet.  The difference between spring tide and average tide - about 1.5 feet - is about 13%.  Although the absolute heights of local tides are different everywhere, the percentage changes between neap, average, and spring tides are about the same worldwide.  Lunacy occurs everywhere on earth, too.

I'm not a physicist, but it seems to me that G-forces caused by 
-11.5% to +15% changes in earth's velocity might affect our brains the same way that gravitational G-forces result in a 13% change in tides.   

Local tidal forces peak every 29 days.  Galacticity peaks every 180 days.  Any Local Lunacy that occurs in the  NW quadrant may get an extra boost.  

So if you're a teacher, an ER attendant, a lover, a wolf, or a just plain human being and you start feeling a little weirder than normal, check the moon.  Then ask your local astrophysicist where we are today on the Galacticity Chart.

If we're on the North Cusp and the Moon is Full, you and the rest of the world may be in for short exhilarating dose of Galactic Lunacy. 

 

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Comments?

Am I right or wrong?  Maybe there's a real physicist out there who'd like to do the math.  I'll be happy to publish your findings here: 

 

 

 

 

   10/23/06