Re: Moon Wood
If you'll permit a bit of physics introduced into the discussion ...
Astronomical occurrences may be a bit tricky to understand, and different aspects interrelate. Moon phases are caused by the relative motion of three celestial bodies - the moon, the earth, and the sun. The earth rotates on its axis once a day, and the moon's gravitational pull effects changes in large bodies of water, known as tides, which are highest at ones' locale when the moon's position relative to the earth is either above or on the opposite side, and at their lowest when the moon is farthest from one' locale, at right angles from the line from earth to moon. Moon phases are caused by the difference in sunlight reflected on the moon as seen from earth, and these go through their cycles - approximately 13 of them in the course of the year - as the earth-moon system revolves around the sun. Moon phases have nothing to do with gravitation, only visual perception. Sap in trees being pulled by the moon seems far-fetched to me, and even if there is some movement, it won't be affected by the phase of the moon, but perhaps in conjunction with the tides - ever so slightly, methinks. Further, methinks climactic changes as mentioned by others would be a much greater factor in moisture content variations.
That said, at full moon the moon is opposite the earth from the sun, so perhaps the gravitational effect would pull the sap down - during the day, that is, when the moon would be on the other side of the earth form one's locale. Though it seems to me, the optimal time would be during the new moon, when the two celestial bodies would work together to exert maximum force this way.
Thus saith the wiki:
1) The lunar phase or Moon phase is the shape of the Moon's directly sunlit portion as viewed from Earth. The lunar phases gradually change over a synodic month (about 29.53 days) as the Moon's orbital positions around Earth and Earth around the Sun shift. The visible side of the moon is variously sunlit, depending on the position of the Moon in its orbit.
2) Tidal forces affect the entire Earth, but the movement of solid Earth occurs by mere centimeters. In contrast, the atmosphere is much more fluid and compressible so its surface moves by kilometers, in the sense of the contour level of a particular low pressure in the outer atmosphere.
So yeah, Captain Obvious is a bit of a killjoy. But it's better to understand what is really going on than get taken in by someone spinning a lot of hooey. IMO, FWIW, & YMMV.
But that's just my opinion. I could be wrong. - Dennis Miller
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