This is a myth, and it's an myth precisely because of this vaguely scientific-sounding "explanation" - the moon exerts gravity! It causes tides! That could, like, affect us, right?
Um, not really. Tides occur because of the sheer amount of water in the oceans and because of water's motility (note: the moon is still exerting a gravitational force on land, land is just harder to move). Your mass is a lot less than that of the oceans. There's consequently a lot less force, and the *variation* in that force is tiny. Remember, gravitational force is *squared*. An object twice as far away from you has 4 times less gravitational pull on you. The moon is about 400,000 kilometres away - so it's not actually exerting that much force at all. The sun is exerting much, much more, because it's so much bigger - that's why we orbit the sun! Do you believe that people's behaviour changes between perihelion and aphelion? By this supposed mechanism, it would make much more sense.
Basically, this is bunk. So there's an infintesimally larger amount of pull exterted on you by the moon at some points - *how* does that affect your behaviour? I'm serious - how? The key thing to remember is that extensive studies into this supposed phenomenon have revealed no variation in behaviour with lunar cycles. There's just no evidence for it. When you've got no mechanism as well - that's pretty much the definition of a myth.
Oh, and the menstrual cycle? It's a coincidence. It's not even true for all women, although a lot of people accept it as the norm nowdays because of the prevalence of the Pill. The moon has zero to do with it.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2008-12-13 02:30 am (UTC)Um, not really. Tides occur because of the sheer amount of water in the oceans and because of water's motility (note: the moon is still exerting a gravitational force on land, land is just harder to move). Your mass is a lot less than that of the oceans. There's consequently a lot less force, and the *variation* in that force is tiny. Remember, gravitational force is *squared*. An object twice as far away from you has 4 times less gravitational pull on you. The moon is about 400,000 kilometres away - so it's not actually exerting that much force at all. The sun is exerting much, much more, because it's so much bigger - that's why we orbit the sun! Do you believe that people's behaviour changes between perihelion and aphelion? By this supposed mechanism, it would make much more sense.
Basically, this is bunk. So there's an infintesimally larger amount of pull exterted on you by the moon at some points - *how* does that affect your behaviour? I'm serious - how? The key thing to remember is that extensive studies into this supposed phenomenon have revealed no variation in behaviour with lunar cycles. There's just no evidence for it. When you've got no mechanism as well - that's pretty much the definition of a myth.
Oh, and the menstrual cycle? It's a coincidence. It's not even true for all women, although a lot of people accept it as the norm nowdays because of the prevalence of the Pill. The moon has zero to do with it.