Re: What would be the most significant thing to happen if a rope (or wire) tied the Earth and the Moon together?

[LanX]

depends ... where exactly on moon and earth would you try to anchor the "rope"?

[BillKSmith]

A closely related issue "How is the cable attached?" What rotation is allowed without winding (or twisting) the cable?

UPDATE: Please consider an attachment via a "cargo net" which would allow any rotation (assuming it is slippery enough).

[LanX]

Let's suppose we have a rope with more than 10% elasticity (relative delta of distance)

The earth is always visible from the near side of the moon (that's the other half from what people erroneously call the "dark" side).

If the moon was always visible from one of the poles (like the sun is for almost half a year) you'd only need to compensate approximately 360°/24h (the moons orbital rotation of 360°/month doesn't matter much) with something like a slowly rotating swivel.

But that's never the case, I suppose the moon is at best only visible for 18 days in a row IIRC.

So you'd end up constructing a large tower in Antarctica, such that from top the moon is always over the horizon.

No idea how tall this tower must be, but if it crosses the atmosphere (I'm pretty sure it must¹) this would also solve the problem of a giant whip lashing thru air.

All the construction problems aside, I wouldn't be surprised about electrostatic problems arising from connecting two giant bodies.

Can't see the benefit of such a construction, that's at best a theoretical question for math class.

PS: pollsters seem to be desperate. ;-)

¹) too lazy for calculations, but alone with an ecliptic angle of 23° something like 1-3 thousand km would be "reasonable".

update

Quick calculation say a tower on the pole needs roughly 1000km height (at least) to be able to see the moon all year from the tip. (6371/cos 30° = 7356 )

Well that's already 3 times higher than the ISS orbit...

[hippo]

the other half from what people erroneously call the "dark" side

While there can be no doubt that some section of the populace erroneously call it the dark side we can only hope that their number is small. The rest of us call it the dark side metaphorically. Nobody (excepting perhaps that same section of the populace) is suggesting for a moment that the Dark Ages were literally dark or that the Dark Web is literally dark. We use "dark" as a metaphor for things which are or were unknown.

That said, there's nothing wrong for non-astronauts referring to it as the far side of the moon instead.

[chacham]

where exactly on moon and earth would you try to anchor the "rope"?

It's times like these that we appreciate having decades of videos to show us the answer to all our problems:

For the Earth, you can attach it to the same spot Superman used to push the entire Earth. It's so amazing that even Batman challenged the idea.

[LanX]

It's heart warming to see (well hear) that actors and dialog editors from Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon still found employment even 30 years after in the animation industry . ..

Update

Btw forget those Justice League wieners. .. in case of emergency just call Kung Fury and his friends.