if there is no gravity on the moon why is the us flag waving?

Question

if you look at a picture of neil armstrong standing in front of the us flag it is waving back and forth . if there is no gravity how is that possible? please let me know.

Answer 1

Okay, it's already been said that the moon does have gravity, for those who didn't know. The "waving" flag had little or darn near nothing to do with gravity--it would have had to do with the lack of atmosphere and there being no wind. Turns out though, that neither of those was the reason for the rippling!

An excerpt from ABC News's "Why Does the U.S. Flag on the Moon Have Ripples?"

"'a small telescoping arm was attached to the flagpole to keep the flag extended and perpendicular. As hard as we tried, the telescope wouldn't fully extend. Thus the flag which should have been flat had its own permanent wave.'

"The wrong coating had been applied to the telescoping rod, so it wouldn't fully extend, which is why the flag looks like it is waving in the wind. Ironically, that famous picture of Buzz Aldrin posing next to the flag is often cited as evidence by conspiracy theorists as proof the mission to the moon was a hoax. "

Answer 2

Actually, there is gravity on the moon, just not as strong as on earth. If there were no gravity on the moon, then they would not even be able to land on the surface. Also, if there were no gravity, then the astronauts would float into space when they were on the surface.

The question is a good one. However, it deals with wind. There is no atmosphere on the moon to speak of, so therefore there is no wind. The reason that the flag is waving is because it is stiffened to look that way. A non-waving flag would be boring and pointless. If the flag still stands (and we have no reason to believe that it does not) then it will look exactly the same, with the same position that it did when Neil Armstrong stood in front of it.

I hope that helps.

Answer 3

There IS gravity on the Moon, but there is no air or wind.

No picture of the flag shows it waving back and forth. Even if it were waving you couldn't tell that in a STILL picture. You need to look at moving pictures, like a video clip. Like the ones in the sources.

Answer 4

If I look at a photograph of Neil Armstrong in front of the flag, I see NO MOTION AT ALL. It's called still photography for a reason, numbskull.

The flag looks wrinkled and wavy because it was DESIGNED TO LOOK LIKE THAT WHEN DEPLOYED ON THE AIRLESS SURFACE OF THE MOON.

If you watch the videos footage taken of them deploying the flag, you can see the motion of the flag is entirely due to a common property of all matter called INERTIA. Check it out in any physics textbook.

And BTW, gravity has nothing to do with it. There IS gravity on the moon, but it is only about 1/6th the strength of gravity on the earth. Gravity is a common property of all matter. Check it out in any physics textbook.

Now stop wasting our time with your conspiracy theory garbage.

Answer 5

There IS gravity on the moon, but it is about 6 times less than that of the force of gravity on earth. If you jumped on the moon you wouldn't be able to 'swim' in the air like if you were in a zero-gravity situation (ie-on a space shuttle), but you would land approximately 6 times slower. As for the wind, well the moon has a weather system too. As a matter of fact there was a mysterious hexagonal-shaped weather system (storm) on Saturn a few days ago and some really weird and unique photos were taken of it, it's worth looking up but I no longer have the link to it, sorry.

Answer 6

Ok first of all i must correct you.
there IS gravity on the moon , just not as much as Earth.
and second of all there is no wind on the moon because if there was then there would be erosion.
I do in fact know the answer because I saw this on National Geographic.
the flag had a spring on it and they had to use a lot of force to get it in the surface
and after it was planted and let go , the spring bounced back and would continue bouncing for a while.

Answer 7

It's frightening to think about the state of our public education system if so many people don't know what gravity is.

Everything that has mass (including the moon) has gravity. What the moon does not have is an atmosphere and therefore no wind. As was stated above, the flag was supported to make it look like there was a breeze.

Answer 8

You may want to take some time and go to the library. They have these things called books. In these books, you will find information about the moon. There is gravity there. There is no atmosphere. Disputing the moon landing is a lame excuse for not learning history.

Answer 9

A little stick across the top to hold it up.

There IS gravity on the moon -- it is 1/5th the strength of Earth, but it is there.

There is no AIR or WIND on the moon. That's why they needed a metal stick to hold the flag out from the pole. It has nothing to do with gravity.

.

Answer 10

It's not waving. There was a spring to hold it open and when they stuck it in the soil, it waved for a bit. If you look at subsequent shots when they were moving around it was perfectly still. If you believe it was faked, keep in mind that that story was started by the Flat Earth Society to dispel the photos of a round moon. They said it was faked in a studio. If you believe that, your society is calling; I'm not sure what the dues are.