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Originally Posted by xelasnave
 Good morning Josh,
Some see a relationship between the full Moon and "activity" (ask a policeman) but can any thing of signifficance be drawn from that I doubt it..may be there is more light so more opportunity of mischief  .
I suspect that the "force" behind astrology is in the box we call "self forfilling prophesy"... alex |
Alex
The Full Moon effect is very selective...when things get busy it must be due to a Full Moon, even if there isnt one. People want explanations. My wife works in nursing and seems to have the same belief - if it is a full moon then activity will be higher. Sometimes when I know the Moon is Full I will ask if she has had a busy night...no? really?
Of course there is more illumination at night when the Moon is Full (substantially more than either before or after) so activity will increase for that reason. This was probably more true in historical times when artificíal lighting was not widespread like it is today.
A quick search on google on the many urban myths and legends sites will lead you to research that indictes that there is no increased activity around Full Moon in hospitals or increased criminal activity, at least more than the normal random variation would allow.
This makes sense to me, as there is no reason or hypothesis to account for increased activity. The Full Moon has no effect on you or me other than providing more light at night and giving us something to look at through our telescopes. I am always awed by the number of craters with ray systems that become obvious during Full Moon.
Of course, people argue the "tidal effect" - if the oceans have tides then the Moon must effect us. This shows zero understanding of tides. Even on the TV news I hear "it's a Full Moon so the tides will be bigger", lots of ignorance out there, where do I start the education process? My fish tank does not have tides, and neither do I. The gravitational potential between one side of my fishtank, and between one side of me and the other, is inconsequental. It is only when we scale up to the size of the Earth that we get a significant difference between gravity on one side to the other that creates a tidal effect. It not only raises the oceans but the crust of the Earth as well. Nature is awesome, you don't need to invent weird stuff up. And higher tides occur when the Sun and Moon line up, at New Moon.
cheers