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Yet Another Stupid ATOT Q(YASAQ): What if we terraformed the moon?

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DrPizza said:
Huh?! Are you implying that air pressure pushes us down? Technically, in fact, air has a buoyant effect on us, making us "lighter" than we would be without an atmosphere, although the effect of this is pretty negligible.
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I figured since there wasn't any air under your feet, there would be a net force down. 14 psi * square inches of your foot print.

If you calibrate a scale in vacuum on earth to zero and then place in outside wouldn't it read the 14 psi?
 
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JTsyo said:
I figured since there wasn't any air under your feet, there would be a net force down. 14 psi * square inches of your foot print.

If you calibrate a scale in vacuum on earth to zero and then place in outside wouldn't it read the 14 psi?
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Brilliant. That means, if I can get a rectangular balloon type of object to touch the bottom of the lake, then the pressure of the water above it will hold it down, since there's no water below it. 🙂 (sarcasm.)
 
There's no reason you couldn't put a big sphere around the moon, pump it full of air, keep it warm and have people live on the surface.

The difference to the Earth would be negligible. I don't think we'd ever move enough mass up there to change our tides and the appearance would depend entirely on the new surface. A clever artist could probably disguise the near side to be indistinguishable by the naked eye.
 
Well, I'd like to visit the moon
On a rocket ship high in the air
Yes, I'd like to visit the moon
But I don't think I'd like to live there
Though I'd like to look down at the earth from above
I would miss all the places and people I love
So although I might like it for one afternoon
I don't want to live on the moon

I'd like to travel under the sea
I could meet all the fish everywhere
Yes, I'd travel under the sea
But I don't think I'd like to live there
I might stay for a day there if I had my wish
But there's not much to do when your friends are all fish
And an oyster and clam aren't real family
So I don't want to live in the sea

I'd like to visit the jungle, hear the lions roar
Go back in time and meet a dinosaur
There's so many strange places I'd like to be
But none of them permanently

So if I should visit the moon
Well, I'll dance on a moonbeam and then
I will make a wish on a star
And I'll wish I was home once again
Though I'd like to look down at the earth from above
I would miss all the places and people I love
So although I may go I'll be coming home soon
'Cause I don't want to live on the moon
No, I don't want to live on the moon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIq8jLj5TzU
 
DrPizza said:
Brilliant. That means, if I can get a rectangular balloon type of object to touch the bottom of the lake, then the pressure of the water above it will hold it down, since there's no water below it. 🙂 (sarcasm.)
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Just tried this. It didn't work, you liar.
 
DrPizza said:
Brilliant. That means, if I can get a rectangular balloon type of object to touch the bottom of the lake, then the pressure of the water above it will hold it down, since there's no water below it. 🙂 (sarcasm.)
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hmm interesting. Can the buoyancy force pull the balloon?

Thinking of a free body diagram, the normal force on the bottom of the balloon would be the weight of the balloon+ weight of the water above it. Not sure where the buoyancy force would act. Is this worthy of HT or something simple, I'm missing. 😕
 
Alright I did some searching and found something that would support what I said.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/lasalle/buoypool.html

Here we have a boat in a swimming pool. In the boat is an inquisitive experimenter. Also in the boat is a rock.

Our experimenter picks up the rock and tosses it into the pool. The rock sinks to the bottom. No water leaves the pool from the splash made by the rock.

Now for the question: Does the pool's water level rise, lower, or stay the same?

You think that the pool's water level will lower? That's absolutely right!

The reason is that, when the rock is in the boat, it displaces its total weight. If it weighs ten pounds, for example, then it's making the boat ten pounds heavier. When the rock is sitting at the bottom of the pool, on the other hand, it displaces its volume.
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JTsyo said:
Alright I did some searching and found something that would support what I said.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/lasalle/buoypool.html
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What you said is a common misconception in physics, and has nothing to do with what you quoted. It's like saying that a piece of paper held in the air is very light, because the pressure on both sides is equal, but if you lay it flat on the ground, it's heavy, because there's no air under it, but there's air above it.

Incidentally, the hidden text above is written somewhat poorly. It doesn't "displace its weight",
it displaces a volume of water with a weight equal to its weight.
 
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DrPizza said:

What you said is a common misconception in physics, and has nothing to do with what you quoted. It's like saying that a piece of paper held in the air is very light, because the pressure on both sides is equal, but if you lay it flat on the ground, it's heavy, because there's no air under it, but there's air above it.

Incidentally, the hidden text above is written somewhat poorly. It doesn't "displace its weight",
it displaces a volume of water with a weight equal to its weight.
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Yea, on the drive back from work, I was thinking about it and the rock scenario is different. Free body diagram-wise I still don't see hot the buoyancy force is acting.
 
I didn't know Mars couldn't hold oxygen even though it can hold other gases. That said, what if we could add enough mass to Mars to increase its gravity enough that it could hold oxygen?

I doubt if crashing Phobos and Deimos into Mars would provide enough mass, so who knows where it would come from.
 
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