An ancient, but still common, popular belief is that the full moon causes strange or extreme human behavior – hence, the words “loony” and “lunatic” derived from the Latin word for moon. This myth was so well established that lawyers previously used the influence of the moon as a justification for their client’s abnormal behavior. Defendants accused of a crime might claim “moon madness” as a form of temporary insanity. While that argument would not hold up in a court today, it’s still accepted that prisons, and hospitals, especially those for the mentally ill, experience resident discontent and trouble on the full moon. A pseudoscientific explanation for “moon madness” is that the moon affects people in a similar way that it affects the oceans, causing tides. This is not justified by natural laws, however, since the human body is too small to be significantly influenced by the moon’s pull. Through simple physics calculations, we can show that the earth’s gravitational influence swamps any small influence of a celestial object like the moon on the human body. A simpler explanation is that a full moon on a clear, cloudless night is bright and obvious. A night like that is less conducive to sleep and could well have been a busy time in a hospital or asylum. In addition, the widespread belief of lunar effects may prompt those who notice the full moon and are prone to erratic behavior to use it as an excuse. Humans are rather suggestible to these notions and the belief has endured to this day. (See also entry for “lunar effect”)
- Sharon Hill (Scientist) |
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