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Is there a dark side of the moon? · Stuff You Should Know

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to you stuff you should know from how Stuff
0:04
Speaker 1: Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
0:12
Speaker 1: Josh Clark. There's Charles w Chuck Bryant. There's someone in
0:16
Speaker 1: our heads but it's not us. And there's Jerry over there.
0:20
Speaker 1: She's got her own self in her head. She's not Alumi.
0:24
Speaker 1: Our band does that song. Oh yeah, yeah, it's one
0:27
Speaker 1: of my favorites. It's a good one. We do it
0:28
Speaker 1: in the basement. It's not like, Actually we did it
0:31
Speaker 1: at one public show and I think after whatever's like,
0:34
Speaker 1: we shouldn't do that song out. Yeah, I was like, man,
0:37
Speaker 1: I love it. Yeah, where you like that was out
0:39
Speaker 1: of sight? I thought it was totally groovy, and like
0:42
Speaker 1: the audience didn't like it, or I think the rest
0:45
Speaker 1: of the band felt like it was. You know, there's
0:47
Speaker 1: a bunch of songs we do just in the basement
0:48
Speaker 1: for our own fun, and then there's you know, the
0:51
Speaker 1: songs that we'll do in front of people twice a year.
0:53
Speaker 1: You guys do yakety sex in the base. I wish
0:57
Speaker 1: did you see Dolly Partner played that live at the
1:00
Speaker 1: Huge Festival and she did a good job. Yeah, it
1:03
Speaker 1: was it. Bonorue right, No, it was that the one
1:07
Speaker 1: is it Glastonbury in the UK? Dolly Parton doing yakety
1:12
Speaker 1: sacks playing the saxophone at Glastonbury, Like, who would have
1:16
Speaker 1: thunk that? Whatever? She had the crowd eating out of
1:18
Speaker 1: the palm of her hand. Yes, she's putting out a
1:20
Speaker 1: new album that, um she's calling her gay friendly dance album. Yeah,
1:24
Speaker 1: there's a is it the name of the album or
1:26
Speaker 1: the name of the track is just a wee bit
1:28
Speaker 1: gay or something like that. I think that's one of Oh.
1:31
Speaker 1: I thought that's just how she described it. Is that
1:33
Speaker 1: the name of one of the songs. I don't know.
1:35
Speaker 1: It wasn't quote, but I couldn't tell if that was
1:37
Speaker 1: because it was a title or quote. Well, she's got
1:40
Speaker 1: a huge following in the gay community, and she's she's
1:43
Speaker 1: embraces it fully. Yes she does. And there's always been
1:45
Speaker 1: rumors about her. Oh I don't think those are correct. Well,
1:49
Speaker 1: I mean it doesn't mean there are rumors out there.
1:52
Speaker 1: She has a long, long term husband. Yeah, she's been
1:55
Speaker 1: married for like fifty years. But um, I think the
1:58
Speaker 1: fact that he's like, try and find a picture of
2:01
Speaker 1: this guy. He's a total recluse and she just says,
2:05
Speaker 1: that's just the nature of our relationship. Have you been
2:08
Speaker 1: to um It's like the Oprah thing. She has a
2:10
Speaker 1: really close girlfriend, and everyone's like, oh, well, of course
2:13
Speaker 1: Oprah and gayl are gay. Have you been You can't
2:17
Speaker 1: be friends lifelong friends with someone of the same sex.
2:21
Speaker 1: Have you been to Dollywood? Not? Still, you should go
2:25
Speaker 1: to Dollywood. There's a Dolly part museum that's part of
2:28
Speaker 1: Dollywood that's like worth the admission by itself. Can you
2:32
Speaker 1: just go to the museum. There's no reason to just
2:34
Speaker 1: go to the museum, but yeah you could. I mean,
2:37
Speaker 1: like it's worth going just for the museum. But then
2:41
Speaker 1: when you exit the museum, you've got all the rest
2:43
Speaker 1: of Dollywood to go hang out at, which is substantial,
2:47
Speaker 1: like she updated it. And there's roller coasters, which I
2:50
Speaker 1: don't ride. You don't ride roller coasters at all? No,
2:54
Speaker 1: you mean I went with some friends and like everybody
2:56
Speaker 1: else is riding roller coasters, and we were just like,
2:59
Speaker 1: that's okay. Have you never ridden all ridden roller coasters before?
3:02
Speaker 1: But I've gotten the point in my life where I'm like,
3:05
Speaker 1: I don't feel like being terrified out of my mind
3:07
Speaker 1: right now. So that's the reason. All right, the dark
3:10
Speaker 1: side of the moon is off the bang and start. Yeah,
3:14
Speaker 1: who'd have thought Dolly Partner would make an appearance in
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Speaker 1: this one, Dolly park So there there, Chuck, We're talking
3:20
Speaker 1: about the dark side of the moon. And it turns
3:23
Speaker 1: out there is such thing as the dark side of
3:25
Speaker 1: the moon, but it's just misused in the popular vernacular.
3:32
Speaker 1: The idea of the dark side of the moon is
3:34
Speaker 1: that there's another side of the moon that we never see,
3:38
Speaker 1: and it's dark. It's out there, exposed to the cold
3:42
Speaker 1: chill of space, and um, the dark side of the
3:46
Speaker 1: moon is the side of the moon we never see,
3:49
Speaker 1: the one that faces opposite our per view. There is
3:53
Speaker 1: a side of the moon that we don't see. Right,
3:58
Speaker 1: We're going to go ahead and called at the Far
4:00
Speaker 1: side of the Moon. Yes, And I think that song
4:03
Speaker 1: would be equally as cool. I was thinking about it
4:05
Speaker 1: if it was I'll see you on the far side
4:07
Speaker 1: of the Moon. Yeah, that's even like a little more
4:08
Speaker 1: psychedelic if you ask me. Yeah, because of the whole
4:12
Speaker 1: far out thing. I don't know it resonated. In fact,
4:16
Speaker 1: in the basement, I'm gonna start singing that you are
4:18
Speaker 1: you gonna adapt it. Okay, there you go, just not
4:22
Speaker 1: out never again. So there is a far side of
4:27
Speaker 1: the moon. There is the side of the moon that
4:28
Speaker 1: we don't see. People are correct in assuming that, Um,
4:32
Speaker 1: But and there is a dark side of the moon.
4:35
Speaker 1: And sometimes the dark side of the moon and the
4:36
Speaker 1: far side of the moon are one and the same,
4:38
Speaker 1: but sometimes they're not. Yeah, it gets a little confusing,
4:42
Speaker 1: But everything I just said is true. Yeah, And it's
4:45
Speaker 1: our job to get you to wrap your heads around this,
4:48
Speaker 1: like we had to, yeah, because it's extraordinarily confusing. It's
4:52
Speaker 1: almost like, why couldn't just the popular conception be correct?
4:57
Speaker 1: Because this is kind of difficult until you wrap your
5:00
Speaker 1: head around it and then it's easy. But it is.
5:03
Speaker 1: It is hard at first. Everybody, so buckling, tie your
5:06
Speaker 1: shoes on tight. Yeah, maybe pack a granola bar and
5:10
Speaker 1: let's get down to this alright. So I guess we
5:13
Speaker 1: can start by saying that the moon, um is not
5:16
Speaker 1: like the sun. It doesn't generate that warm, lovely glow
5:19
Speaker 1: itself that you see. I think most people know at
5:22
Speaker 1: this point, UM, that that is reflection from the sun.
5:26
Speaker 1: And the moon is really big, and that's why it
5:29
Speaker 1: looks super bright. It's not really very reflective, but it's large.
5:32
Speaker 1: It is, so on a dark, dark night, a full
5:35
Speaker 1: moon looks really super bright because it's big. Yeah, and
5:38
Speaker 1: that's from sunshine sunshining on the moon. That's what makes
5:43
Speaker 1: the moon glow to us. There's also something called earth shine,
5:48
Speaker 1: and when there's no sunshine hitting the moon, as far
5:52
Speaker 1: as we can see, uh this, the Earth is still
5:55
Speaker 1: reflecting light on it. And they've recently found out that
5:57
Speaker 1: the moon if you can somehow and they figured out
6:01
Speaker 1: how to using radio telescopes, subtract any kind of sunlight
6:06
Speaker 1: interference and just isolate the earth shine. If you could
6:10
Speaker 1: just see that, then what you would be seeing is
6:12
Speaker 1: a kind of dark turquoise cobalt blue moon. Yeah. So
6:16
Speaker 1: technically the dark side of the moon is turquoise. Yes,
6:20
Speaker 1: and they have figured that out for the first time.
6:23
Speaker 1: Was it It was just this year, right, it was published.
6:26
Speaker 1: So that's exciting new news because they tried for a
6:29
Speaker 1: long time, that's right, but it took some smart people
6:32
Speaker 1: and people used to be dumb. Yes, So there is
6:36
Speaker 1: a there is a side of the moon, like we said,
6:38
Speaker 1: that we just don't see. And you would think, well,
6:41
Speaker 1: that's because the moon orbits the Earth right, which it does.
6:49
Speaker 1: And so if the Moon is just sitting there stationary
6:52
Speaker 1: orbiting around the Earth, of course we're going to see
6:55
Speaker 1: the same side all the time. That's a fallacy, that's
6:59
Speaker 1: right as a or a fact. If the Moon orbited
7:03
Speaker 1: the Earth and didn't rotate around its own axis, right,
7:07
Speaker 1: we would see all sides of the Moon at some
7:09
Speaker 1: point during that lunar orbit, which we call a month.
7:13
Speaker 1: And you can test this by just getting a tennis
7:15
Speaker 1: ball and keeping it still and rotating it around your
7:18
Speaker 1: hand and pretend your hand is Earth, and you would
7:23
Speaker 1: see at some point the Earth would see all sides
7:25
Speaker 1: of that tennis ball. The trick is the Moon rotates
7:29
Speaker 1: on its own axis at the same rate that it
7:33
Speaker 1: rotates around in orbit. And so now if you take
7:36
Speaker 1: that tennis ball and well you'd have to be pretty
7:39
Speaker 1: precise to spin it, but if you could spin it
7:42
Speaker 1: at the same rate that you're going around, you would notice.
7:44
Speaker 1: And there's a handy animation on this article on how
7:48
Speaker 1: stuff works dot Com. I thought it was a little
7:50
Speaker 1: fast and all at it to actually I think they
7:53
Speaker 1: need to go in and slow that thing down a
7:54
Speaker 1: little bit. It's handy and fast, but you would notice
7:57
Speaker 1: that if it's spinning on its own ax us at
8:00
Speaker 1: the same rate that it'sn't spinning in orbit, then you're
8:02
Speaker 1: going to see that same side. And it's kind of
8:05
Speaker 1: it seems like a miracle, but it's not. It's a
8:09
Speaker 1: mind boggling colossal cosmological coincidences coincidence. Okay, well then I'm
8:19
Speaker 1: hoping you can explain this to me, because Chuck, what
8:21
Speaker 1: you've just said, I think it bears repeating the the
8:26
Speaker 1: the Moon's orbit around Earth last twenty nine point five days.
8:31
Speaker 1: That's right. The Moon also rotates on its axis. That
8:36
Speaker 1: rotation you know, the Earth rotates on its axis that
8:39
Speaker 1: lasts about twenty four hours. We call it a day.
8:41
Speaker 1: The moon rotates on its texas, so it has the
8:43
Speaker 1: day too, but it's day last twenty nine point five days.
8:50
Speaker 1: So the Moon's rotation on its own axis and its
8:54
Speaker 1: orbit around Earth are the same, which is why no
8:58
Speaker 1: matter where you are on Earth, you can't see anything
9:02
Speaker 1: but the near side of the Moon because even though
9:06
Speaker 1: it's rotating on its axis, it's revolving in orbit at
9:10
Speaker 1: the same speed at the same rate around the Earth.
9:15
Speaker 1: So you will never see anything but the near side.
9:17
Speaker 1: Should we say this a third time? This was what
9:21
Speaker 1: this was what got me the most. That's why I'm
9:23
Speaker 1: saying it again, like this is this is mind boggling
9:26
Speaker 1: to me. So there's a day side of the moon
9:29
Speaker 1: and a night side of the moon, just like there
9:31
Speaker 1: was on Earth. Your son's gonna if you built a
9:34
Speaker 1: little moon lunar cabin, which would be great by the way. Yeah,
9:39
Speaker 1: you would see a sunrise in a sunset. I don't
9:42
Speaker 1: know if it would look exactly the same. Well, it
9:44
Speaker 1: would take a month. Yeah, it would be a very
9:47
Speaker 1: slow sunrise and a very slow sunset. What to us
9:50
Speaker 1: is a month, a lunar month, right, which involves the
9:54
Speaker 1: four phases of the moon, the waxing, the waning that
9:56
Speaker 1: give us the crescent, the full, the new, all that jazz,
9:59
Speaker 1: the super Yeah. Um that to the moon is a day. Yeah.
10:04
Speaker 1: So our whole concept of there being a far side
10:07
Speaker 1: of the moon and dark side of the moon and
10:09
Speaker 1: phases of the moon to the moon that it's just like,
10:13
Speaker 1: hey man, this is just a day to me, I'm
10:16
Speaker 1: just the moon right, reflecting light because just like over
10:20
Speaker 1: the course of twenty four hours on Earth, different parts
10:22
Speaker 1: of the Earth are exposed to the sunlight over the
10:25
Speaker 1: course of twenty nine point five days. Thanks to the
10:28
Speaker 1: rotation of the Moon, different parts of the Moon are
10:30
Speaker 1: exposed to sunlight. So that far side of the Moon
10:33
Speaker 1: that we never see because of the rotation and the
10:37
Speaker 1: orbit being the same for the Moon still gets bathed
10:41
Speaker 1: in sunlight for two weeks out of the year. Yeah,
10:44
Speaker 1: and sometimes we're we're seeing the night side, sometimes we're
10:47
Speaker 1: seeing the day side. It just depends on when it
10:50
Speaker 1: happens to fall during that lunar day. There's not the
10:52
Speaker 1: same thing as our day. It is confusing. That's why
10:56
Speaker 1: I said it twice but not a third time. Uh well,
11:02
Speaker 1: I guess we should explain a little something about gravity.
11:05
Speaker 1: And we did cover this. Um we did something on
11:08
Speaker 1: the tides, right title bulge. Yeah, he's at a video
11:12
Speaker 1: at least once we've discussed it and now we've done
11:16
Speaker 1: it at some point. The reason that everything is uh
11:19
Speaker 1: in synchronicity like that is because of gravity. It's because
11:23
Speaker 1: Earth is exerting gravitational pull on the Moon and it's
11:26
Speaker 1: locked it in with us. But the Moon's doing the
11:29
Speaker 1: same thing to us, and it's also getting further away
11:32
Speaker 1: from us. About an inch and a half a year.
11:35
Speaker 1: I think one point for eight inches per year. Uh,
11:39
Speaker 1: And that's what causes title bulge. The gravitational force on
11:42
Speaker 1: us causes the title bulge on the near side when uh,
11:47
Speaker 1: the Moon has the greatest poll so water is going
11:49
Speaker 1: to be pulled toward the Moon and inertia is overcome
11:52
Speaker 1: by gravity. And on the far side the opposite is true,
11:54
Speaker 1: but they're both bulges when when it's at its nearest
11:58
Speaker 1: point in orbit, and it's for this point in orbit, right,
12:02
Speaker 1: So if the Moon is moving further away from us
12:05
Speaker 1: by one point four eight inches per year, that means
12:08
Speaker 1: millions and billions of years from now things are going
12:10
Speaker 1: to be completely different. Yeah. Like a billion years ago,
12:13
Speaker 1: a day on Earth lasted eighteen hours, and I think
12:17
Speaker 1: the month was twenty days long days. Yeah, And then now,
12:23
Speaker 1: thanks to gravity and the effect of the Moon on
12:25
Speaker 1: Earth and vice versa, the earth rotation is slowing right. Yeah,
12:30
Speaker 1: And eventually I think in a billion or two years um,
12:34
Speaker 1: the day is expected to be about forty current Earth
12:39
Speaker 1: days long. Yeah, it says, uh, yeah, forty days. So
12:45
Speaker 1: that's interesting. I've never thought about that in terms of
12:48
Speaker 1: the evolution of mankind. Uh, not many people, not doing
12:54
Speaker 1: a whole lot, not a lot going on short days.
12:58
Speaker 1: Now everyone's populating the planet longer days and longer days.
13:02
Speaker 1: It's all coincidental, I'm sure. Yeah. I wonder what impact
13:05
Speaker 1: it would have on our sleep cycle if you still
13:07
Speaker 1: have one a billion years from now. Yeah, all right,
13:09
Speaker 1: So coming up in just a second, we're going to
13:11
Speaker 1: talk about the phases of the moon, because there's some
13:13
Speaker 1: misconceptions about that too. So, Chuck, were you had promised
13:21
Speaker 1: everyone that we would talk about the phases of the moon.
13:23
Speaker 1: I think that's called a tease. I think you should
13:24
Speaker 1: deliver on it. Oh yeah, well, I think well. Strickland
13:29
Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland of tech Stuff wrote this article, by the
13:31
Speaker 1: way that we're working from um and there are some
13:35
Speaker 1: misconceptions about the phases of the moon, he thinks, and
13:37
Speaker 1: I agree. UM. One is that a new moon occurs
13:42
Speaker 1: when the Earth is blocking light from the Sun. And
13:44
Speaker 1: if you're just a dumb human like me and you
13:47
Speaker 1: look up and see a new moon, that's sort of
13:49
Speaker 1: what it looks like. It looks like the Earth is
13:52
Speaker 1: blocking it the Sun because you can almost see the
13:55
Speaker 1: shadow like clearly, that's what's going on, right, but it's
13:58
Speaker 1: not true because the moon is actually in between the
14:03
Speaker 1: Earth and the Sun at that point, which makes it
14:05
Speaker 1: impossible when when the moon is full, the Earth is
14:11
Speaker 1: between the Sun and the moon. Right, you're saying, well,
14:14
Speaker 1: no, no no, I'll say during a new moon, the moon
14:17
Speaker 1: is between the Sun and the Earth exactly, But for
14:20
Speaker 1: a full moon, the Earth is between the Sun and
14:24
Speaker 1: the moon. So both of them are kind of counterintuitive,
14:28
Speaker 1: but they make sense when you remember that the whole
14:30
Speaker 1: reason the moon glows is because of its exposure to sunlight. Right,
14:35
Speaker 1: So if the moon, if we see the side that's
14:39
Speaker 1: being exposed to sunlight, that means that the Earth is
14:42
Speaker 1: between the Sun and the moon. That's right, right, because
14:45
Speaker 1: that's the only way we could see that part exposed
14:47
Speaker 1: the sunlight. But if the moon between the Sun and
14:50
Speaker 1: the Earth, and the side that's being exposed to sunlight
14:52
Speaker 1: is the opposite side of the moon, the far side
14:53
Speaker 1: of the moon, so of course we couldn't see that.
14:55
Speaker 1: So that's what the new moon is. Yeah, And Jonathan
14:58
Speaker 1: he broke it down in another pretty easy way to understand,
15:02
Speaker 1: Like if you're if you're sitting in a room and
15:04
Speaker 1: someone and there's only a single light source like a spotlight.
15:07
Speaker 1: Let's say, and someone walks in between the light and you,
15:11
Speaker 1: you're gonna see a silhouette of them, but you're not
15:13
Speaker 1: going to be able to see their detail, right, But
15:16
Speaker 1: if you could somehow get behind them, right, you would
15:19
Speaker 1: see that their back is bathed in that light exactly. Now,
15:22
Speaker 1: if they walk behind you, you're both facing the sunlight. Yeah,
15:26
Speaker 1: so if you can just kind of make your eye
15:29
Speaker 1: travel around the side of your head to the back
15:31
Speaker 1: and poke out through your hair there, you would see
15:34
Speaker 1: that that person is a full moon, that's right, and
15:36
Speaker 1: the initial one when they are between you, when you
15:39
Speaker 1: see their silhouette, that is the new moon. So it
15:41
Speaker 1: makes sense when you think about it that way. I
15:43
Speaker 1: think it does. Or if you look at this illustration
15:45
Speaker 1: that's helpful to it definitely is like this is lunar phases.
15:49
Speaker 1: Is definitely one where it's like, just look at a picture. Yeah,
15:52
Speaker 1: it's so much easier to see. Yeah. The irony of
15:55
Speaker 1: this whole thing is is that thanks to the phases
15:59
Speaker 1: of the moon, this lunar day um that the dark
16:04
Speaker 1: side of the moon is sometimes the side that we
16:07
Speaker 1: can see. Yeah, that's the one that blows my mind
16:10
Speaker 1: a bit, you know, it's during a new moon, like
16:13
Speaker 1: we're still seeing the near side of the moon. That's
16:15
Speaker 1: all we'll ever see side that has the man in
16:19
Speaker 1: the moon or the rabbit making mochi in the moon.
16:22
Speaker 1: That's a Japanese thing. It's like their version of the
16:25
Speaker 1: man in the moon. It's a rabbit making mochi, which
16:27
Speaker 1: is like some sweet, sticky rice treats. And is it
16:30
Speaker 1: something that they see in the moon. Yeah, And what
16:33
Speaker 1: you're seeing are the lunar seas, like the Sea of Tranquility,
16:37
Speaker 1: all that stuff. And with the well, I guess with
16:42
Speaker 1: the advent of the Soviet Luna three spacecraft, that was
16:47
Speaker 1: the first time we ever saw the far side of
16:50
Speaker 1: the moon. And that was I think in nineteen and
16:54
Speaker 1: that crazy, so that long ago we were that advanced. Yeah,
16:58
Speaker 1: it is, And if you're into that, you should go
17:00
Speaker 1: listen to her how the space race worked episode that
17:03
Speaker 1: was a good one because Russia was advanced too. But
17:06
Speaker 1: these photos sent back from the Soviets showed that the
17:10
Speaker 1: far side of the moon didn't look anything like the
17:13
Speaker 1: near side of the moon that we see. It was
17:15
Speaker 1: all just little pockmark craters. There weren't any like sea
17:17
Speaker 1: of tranquility or anything like that. And for a long
17:21
Speaker 1: time it posed this this riddle called the lunar far
17:24
Speaker 1: side Highlands problem. Why was the far side of the
17:28
Speaker 1: Moon so different from the near side. So they finally
17:31
Speaker 1: recently think that they came up with the riddle, like recently,
17:34
Speaker 1: like this year, um or the answer to the riddle.
17:38
Speaker 1: They came up with the riddle after But the the
17:43
Speaker 1: reason being that the side of the Moon, the near
17:46
Speaker 1: side that's closest to us, has been locked what's called
17:50
Speaker 1: tidally locked. It's the whole reason that we have this
17:53
Speaker 1: whole why this whole podcast is going on. Because the
17:55
Speaker 1: Moon and the Earth are locked into orbit, right, and
17:58
Speaker 1: because they effect one another through gravity, decide that's closest
18:01
Speaker 1: to Earth, um was subject to Earth's gravity more than
18:07
Speaker 1: the other side. So as the Moon cooled and the
18:11
Speaker 1: Earth was cooling, but it was still super hot, it
18:15
Speaker 1: was heating the side of the Moon that was closest
18:17
Speaker 1: to us, right, that makes sense. So on the far side,
18:20
Speaker 1: as the Moon cooled, the crust was thicker and sturdier.
18:24
Speaker 1: On the near side the crust is a little thinner.
18:27
Speaker 1: So as the Moon was still cooling, it got blasted
18:30
Speaker 1: with asteroids and meteorites and all that jazz. And on
18:34
Speaker 1: the side that's closest to us, the thinner crust side,
18:38
Speaker 1: lava float up from those meteor impacts and formed things
18:42
Speaker 1: like the Sea of Tranquility. On the other side, the
18:45
Speaker 1: crust was thicker, so no lava flowed up from it. Interesting,
18:49
Speaker 1: that's what they have to explain it. I wonder if
18:51
Speaker 1: there's any value in exploring the far side of the Moon,
18:55
Speaker 1: or if that would just make a great movie. I mean,
18:58
Speaker 1: they're they're talking about to mean that. I don't know
19:01
Speaker 1: what the value is though. Yeah, and with the way
19:03
Speaker 1: that funding is we've talked about with NASA's going, I
19:06
Speaker 1: doubt if it's a priority, but that would make a
19:08
Speaker 1: good movie because one creepy thing about it. It made
19:11
Speaker 1: me think of space movies and such as that you
19:15
Speaker 1: lose radio contact on the far side of the Moon,
19:18
Speaker 1: so the movie version, obviously you would have to sign
19:21
Speaker 1: off and go dark for a period of time, and
19:25
Speaker 1: that's when like the event horizon occurs. What was the well,
19:29
Speaker 1: the event horizon, that's like, yeah, that's not the real thing.
19:32
Speaker 1: Sam Neil goes crazy. Yeah, something happens creepy on that
19:35
Speaker 1: other side, right, was that in that movie Moon with
19:39
Speaker 1: the Sam Rockwell, what the far side of the moon? Yeah?
19:43
Speaker 1: What was the movie where the guys like racing to
19:46
Speaker 1: get out of the um nightfall on the moon? Because
19:49
Speaker 1: like the sunrise? I think that was Moon. Okay, but
19:55
Speaker 1: we'll hear about it if it's not. I like that movie.
19:57
Speaker 1: That's a good one, fantastic. Yeah. I think David Bowie
20:00
Speaker 1: soun directed that. Yeah, Duncan Bowie his name, it's Duncan something.
20:05
Speaker 1: Oh he took because David Bowie's not even his real name.
20:07
Speaker 1: Probably No, I don't think that. Zky start us right,
20:10
Speaker 1: Duncan started us to his name, and he's from the moon.
20:14
Speaker 1: Anything else I do? I have one more thing? Um,
20:18
Speaker 1: it turns out that we can see more than just
20:20
Speaker 1: the near side of the moon sometimes. All right, how's that? Well,
20:24
Speaker 1: because the orbit of the Moon around the Earth isn't
20:27
Speaker 1: a perfect circle, it's elliptical. Um, when it's furthest away,
20:31
Speaker 1: we can see an extra eight degrees of the eight
20:34
Speaker 1: of the eastern side. And when it's um no, when
20:37
Speaker 1: it's closest to us, I'm sorry, and then when it's
20:40
Speaker 1: further away, we can see an extra about eight degrees
20:43
Speaker 1: of the western side, And I think we didn't mention um.
20:47
Speaker 1: We said that if you if you stopped that tennis ball,
20:49
Speaker 1: we would see all sides of the Moon. But even
20:52
Speaker 1: if it fell out of sink a little bit and
20:54
Speaker 1: slowed down or sped up a little bit, we would
20:56
Speaker 1: see portions of the Moon that we've never seen before exactly.
20:59
Speaker 1: So this is why I'm like, we're you don't find
21:02
Speaker 1: it incredibly amazing that we're alive at a point in
21:05
Speaker 1: time when the Moon's rotational spin and it's orbit around
21:10
Speaker 1: Earth are completely the same? Who said that wasn't amazing?
21:14
Speaker 1: You don't think it's a coincidence. I don't. I think
21:17
Speaker 1: that's why. I think if that weren't true, then there
21:20
Speaker 1: wouldn't be Earth as we know it, right, Okay, so
21:24
Speaker 1: you subscribe to the anthropic principle. What's that? Well, it
21:28
Speaker 1: basically says that things are the way they are because
21:31
Speaker 1: we're here to observe them, and if they weren't the
21:34
Speaker 1: way that they are, then we wouldn't be it wouldn't
21:37
Speaker 1: be possible for us to be here to observe them. Yeah,
21:40
Speaker 1: I think I've never heard of that but I think
21:42
Speaker 1: that makes a lot of sense to me. What about you,
21:47
Speaker 1: I don't know. It kind of smacks of like intelligent
21:51
Speaker 1: intelligent design a little bit, you know, because it's basically saying,
21:55
Speaker 1: like the idea is that the universe is fine tuned
21:58
Speaker 1: to support life. But if we if that's the case,
22:03
Speaker 1: like why do we appear to be the only one
22:05
Speaker 1: out there? Oh? I don't think necessarily fine tuned. I
22:07
Speaker 1: think just lucky that things locked into support life. And
22:12
Speaker 1: that's another interpretation of it. Yeah, should we wake Jerry
22:15
Speaker 1: up and ask her? Jerry she has the answer. I
22:20
Speaker 1: do recommend people go to the article. The article on
22:23
Speaker 1: the website is called what and Where is the Dark
22:27
Speaker 1: Side of the Moon? Yeah, because there is a very
22:29
Speaker 1: handy phases of the moon graphic and a super fast animation,
22:35
Speaker 1: so fast actually I think I got it. Wait, you know,
22:38
Speaker 1: and it's kind of small and you can't really see
22:40
Speaker 1: that spinning, So I'm going to retract my statement that
22:42
Speaker 1: it's super handy. It kind of stinks and it's stinky.
22:47
Speaker 1: But I bet you there's a YouTube out there that
22:50
Speaker 1: that shows it in better colored, high graphic detail. And
22:55
Speaker 1: there's a YouTube out there, yeah that sound like an
22:58
Speaker 1: old man. I do have one more thing too. We're
23:01
Speaker 1: talking about billions of years um that the the the
23:06
Speaker 1: Earth and the Moon will have such an effect on
23:09
Speaker 1: on one another that the Earth's day will last forty
23:15
Speaker 1: current Earth days and that will also be the exact
23:18
Speaker 1: amount of time the Moon's orbit. So the lunar phase
23:21
Speaker 1: and the Earth day and a few billion years will
23:23
Speaker 1: be one and the same forty days. And then apparently
23:26
Speaker 1: after that it's not going to change much. So it's
23:29
Speaker 1: they're both going towards some sort of equilibrium. Right. Sounds well,
23:32
Speaker 1: because the Earth day will be in lockstep with the
23:34
Speaker 1: lunar cycle. At that point, the shoe will be on
23:38
Speaker 1: the other foot, and when you're on the moon, you
23:41
Speaker 1: will only ever be able to see one side of
23:44
Speaker 1: the Earth, the United States side. Who knows, well, there
23:49
Speaker 1: won't be a United States at that point. You don't
23:51
Speaker 1: know that three billion years the Earth is there will
23:56
Speaker 1: be no mankind. Don't kid yourself, it's quite possible. We
24:00
Speaker 1: we have to talk about the great filters sometime. I
24:03
Speaker 1: don't even know what that is. You're gonna love it.
24:05
Speaker 1: Is it a full podcast or is it definitely? Well?
24:08
Speaker 1: I think we have like a few we could break
24:10
Speaker 1: out of that one. I think you just threw down
24:12
Speaker 1: the gauntlets. That was a gauntlet, So Chuck, we just
24:17
Speaker 1: did that. Yeah, I'm pretty happy, but I always feel lost,
24:21
Speaker 1: lost in space, like I'm hanging on by the skin
24:25
Speaker 1: of my teeth when we do these things. Well, you
24:28
Speaker 1: did great, thanks, But we always hear like really good
24:31
Speaker 1: feedback from astronomers. It turns out there very much non
24:34
Speaker 1: jerky right in, very forgiving, very forgiving, and very helpful,
24:39
Speaker 1: because I think they really want other people to understand
24:42
Speaker 1: and they're not including look how much we know that
24:44
Speaker 1: you don't know. They're like, look how much you could know.
24:47
Speaker 1: They're not like proctologists, those jerks or soccer fans. Alright,
24:55
Speaker 1: so Chuck um, we are going to do a listener
24:58
Speaker 1: mail as usual, but it will be right after this message. Josh. Yeah,
25:07
Speaker 1: let's chat about squarespace, my friend. Okay, because if you
25:11
Speaker 1: need a website and you don't have one, there's really
25:13
Speaker 1: no easier way to do so, no, I mean, the
25:15
Speaker 1: whole thing is dragon Drop is very intuitive. There's no
25:18
Speaker 1: need to learn how to use code, and in case
25:21
Speaker 1: you find yourself in a bit of a pickle, maybe
25:23
Speaker 1: even a bind. They have seven customer support so you
25:27
Speaker 1: can live chat with them twenty four hours a day,
25:30
Speaker 1: seven days a week. Yeah, all that stuff is great,
25:32
Speaker 1: But what I love about it is it's beautiful. The
25:35
Speaker 1: designs are great. It's gonna look clean, it's gonna look professional.
25:39
Speaker 1: Everyone's gonna be tricked into thinking you're like a master
25:41
Speaker 1: code or web designer. Yeah. And if you want to
25:44
Speaker 1: sell stuff and make some moneys, all plans have commerce options,
25:48
Speaker 1: from hosting an entire store to accepting donations for your
25:51
Speaker 1: personal blog. Plus chuck, you can get the whole thing
25:56
Speaker 1: risk free. Now, wow, that sounds pretty great. Risk free
25:59
Speaker 1: on your laptop, on your mobile device. It's gonna look
26:02
Speaker 1: great on your tablet. That sounds like an all in
26:04
Speaker 1: one solution to me. That's right, Like I said, risk free.
26:07
Speaker 1: You can try squarespace. If you go to squarespace dot
26:10
Speaker 1: com slash stuff for your fourteen day trial with no
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Speaker 1: credit card necessary. If you like the product, it costs
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26:21
Speaker 1: That's right to just use our offera code stuf to
26:24
Speaker 1: get that ten percent off your first purchase Okay, so
26:32
Speaker 1: we're back. If you want to know more about the moon,
26:35
Speaker 1: you can type in dark side of the Moon or
26:38
Speaker 1: moon or whatever in the search bar how stuff works
26:40
Speaker 1: dot Com and we'll bring up this article and others
26:43
Speaker 1: in Since I said search bar, it is time, at
26:45
Speaker 1: long last for listener mail. I'm calling this cool Kid
26:51
Speaker 1: because we like to highlight cool kids that listen to
26:53
Speaker 1: the show because they are some of our favorite fans. Yeah,
26:56
Speaker 1: because they're not yet cynical. Hi guys, my name was Ethan.
27:00
Speaker 1: I'm eleven years old. Uh. This is the first time
27:02
Speaker 1: I'm writing in even though I've been wanting to for
27:04
Speaker 1: eight months. There was nothing to talk about. Then, out
27:08
Speaker 1: of the blue, your podcast seemed to mostly match what
27:10
Speaker 1: I was doing and thinking. I was talking to my
27:13
Speaker 1: friend extensively about the space race, and you did a
27:16
Speaker 1: I left that this eleven year old is talking extensively
27:18
Speaker 1: about the space race in the nine fifties. Uh, and
27:22
Speaker 1: you guys did a podcast on that. I was wondering
27:24
Speaker 1: about why sugar was so sweet and unhealthy. I was
27:27
Speaker 1: picking out a movie when I saw some that were unrated,
27:30
Speaker 1: and that got me thinking, when it's not unrated, who
27:33
Speaker 1: rates it? I think he means not rated. Uh. And
27:37
Speaker 1: the most recent I was playing Monopoly with my family,
27:40
Speaker 1: and since we only have been playing two hours per day,
27:43
Speaker 1: it stretched into a three day game and counting as
27:46
Speaker 1: of writing this email, it still isn't over. It's got
27:49
Speaker 1: to be over by now, though. That'd be horrific experience.
27:53
Speaker 1: On the second day or podcast How Monopoly Works came out.
27:56
Speaker 1: If either of you were mind readers or have a
27:58
Speaker 1: mind reading device, please tell me that works. By the way,
28:02
Speaker 1: I have an old, old podcast correction to make. In
28:04
Speaker 1: the Magnets episode, you said that the second most powerful
28:08
Speaker 1: force in the universe's magnetism. The real answer is electro magnetism.
28:12
Speaker 1: And my source is how Stuff Works dot com. Oh cheeky, Ethan.
28:18
Speaker 1: It would really please me if you did a podcast
28:20
Speaker 1: on electromagnet so I've always been fascinated by them. There
28:22
Speaker 1: are many uses listening for more stuff you should know, Ethan. PS.
28:27
Speaker 1: I'm using my mom's email smiley face. So I wrote
28:31
Speaker 1: Ethan's mom back and said, you know, don't have your
28:34
Speaker 1: permission to read this because he's a great, great kid.
28:36
Speaker 1: She said he would be delighted and so am. I.
28:39
Speaker 1: That's awesome. Thanks ethan, and thanks to your mom too
28:42
Speaker 1: for letting us read your very spectacular listener mail. Thanks
28:45
Speaker 1: for the correction to absolutely We're so dumb, not magnetism, electromagnetism,
28:51
Speaker 1: and I'm taking his word. Well, if you're a cute
28:54
Speaker 1: kid and you want to correct us or just tell
28:56
Speaker 1: us high or whatever we want to hear from you,
28:59
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29:02
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29:07
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29:09
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29:11
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29:14
Speaker 1: client to send in an email to stuff podcast at
29:17
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29:20
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29:23
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29:31
Speaker 1: visit how stuff Works dot com.