The word "lunatic" derives from the latin word "luna," which means moon. The word "moon" itself comes from Anglo-Saxon; the modern English word "month" comes from "moonth," describing one cycle of the Moon's phases around the Earth. During full Moon nights, substantial sunlight is refected off the Moon surface towards the Earth, bright enough for people to be walking around in the middle of the night acting crazy. There are about 13 of these lunations, or full-moon periods during the course of a solar year. Only during a New (or Dark) Moon can a solar eclipse occur.
The center of gravity in the Earth-Moon system is well below the Earth's surface, causing friction in the interior of the Earth, which is slowing its rotation, causing a longer day. This effect is tiny, but cumulative. While the Earth slows its rotation, the Moon slowly moves further away due to the angular momentum forces. Because these effects are so slow, nothing by normal means has been perceptible during all of human history.
More immediately noticeable to us are the "tides," but that word is almost a misnomer. The Moon does not pull the world's waters back and forth; there's instead a permanent water bulge facing the Moon, through which the Earth rotates, giving us the appearance of water movement. As different land masses rotate directly under the Moon, they also bulge, but much less than the water does. So the land, like the water, actually expands and contracts.
The most influence the Moon Phases have is not upon the Earth, but upon the people on the Earth. Watching this cyclicly changing celestial body inspired the creation of goddesses and religions, as well as songs and poetry into our own time.
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