spinning moon and society

[phaishazamkhan]

An astronomy related but this question has more to do with human society.

Does anyone think that if our lone, natural satellite actually revolved on its axis during its orbit that ancient humans wouldn't have believed in a flat earth? The rotation and changing faces of the moon would show the moon is a sphere. Using their logic, why would a sphere move around a flat surface?

[Trebuchet]

Allow me to be the first to pick the obvious nit and point out that the moon DOES spin on its axis, once a lunar month. That enables it to keep one side toward earth.

I don't think most ancient (but civilized) humans actually believed in a flat earth. At least not the educated ones. That's a myth we were taught in elementary school. It's fairly evident the moon is spherical even when it keeps on face to us.

[The_Radiation_Specialist]

Isaac Asimov once wrote that if Venus had a moon, people would see it orbiting and maybe would know earlier that it doesnt all orbit around earth.

[tofu]

ancient humans wouldn't have believed in a flat earth?

yep. I've often wondered the same thing.

On the other hand, you can't actually see any craters on the moon with the naked eye. If the the moon wasn't tidally locked, wouldn't it be uniformly covered with craters and have no distinct maria? In that case, it would just be a bright glowing disc and wouldn't seem to rotate at all.

[phaishazamkhan]

Okay if the moon wasn't tidally locked and never showed the same face, Captain Nitpick from Outer Space. Hmph!!!11one needless smiley emoticon

[DaveC426913]

yep. I've often wondered the same thing.

On the other hand, you can't actually see any craters on the moon with the naked eye. If the the moon wasn't tidally locked, wouldn't it be uniformly covered with craters and have no distinct maria? In that case, it would just be a bright glowing disc and wouldn't seem to rotate at all.
You are proposing that lack of tidal locking would lead to geological formation so uniform that it produced no mares or even distinguishable features???

[Maksutov]

Okay if the moon wasn't tidally locked and never showed the same face, Captain Nitpick from Outer Space. Hmph!!!11one needless smiley emoticonC Major. A-E-G-D, then G-C-F-E-C-A-D-G (gotta install that music notation program!)

Narrator:Space, the final frontier, unless one considers human consciousness to be separate from it. These are the voyages of the starship Analprize. Its three year, 79 episode (although it might be 80 or 81 depending on how one treats the pilot and "The Menagerie") mission. To explore strange and inaccurate astronomical details. To seek (!) out new slight misinterpretations. To boldly (unless one is using regular or italic fonts) go (with or without the split infinitive) where no one (that's PC for "man") has picked nits before!Meanwhile, I'm sure the pre-telescope folks noticed the effects of lunar libration (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libration).