Tsunamis and the Moon

[Daisy]

My sister told me that she works with people who believe that the 2004 tsunami affected the course of the moon. I guess the reasonning is that if the moon affects tides, then the reverse must be true.

I know that this is more antiscience than science, but I was wondering - is that belief peculiar to her pocket of the world or have any of you all heard of anyone else who believes this?

 

[Petrel]

No, I've never heard this.

You know if I run really fast I can perturb the moon's orbit!

 

[Daisy]

Yeah but, can you run fast enough in the right direction to offset the damage the tsuami did?

 

[Paul of Eugene]

Of course there was some very very very tiny effect, but nothing that we can measure.

 

[TC]

I had a high school physics teacher that said when you jump up from the ground you pull the Earth towards you at the same time the Earth pulls you back to it. Because of the mass difference between you and the Earth, you move the Earth such a miniscule amount that it cannot be measured. We were studying the gravitational pull of objects on each other at the time he said that.