Question about the vacuum of space and the Moon?

Question

Since it is a vacuum, there is no wind .. I don't know about air? I guess not ... but if you waved your hand (or a book or something) next to - sy the flag on the moon - is there anything there that would be displaced and would cause the flag to ripple? I'm not sure how to word this exactly, but I know on earth when you swipe your hand past something you kick up the air and if there is paper or a calendar hanging or whatever, it flutters. I know that it because of wind .. but are there still particles/something that would move about from your hand swipe that would cause fluttering in space? Like if you waved a fan at the dust on the moon's surface, would you disturb it without touching it?

Thanks!

Answer 1

I think there is a little gas on the moon, which is why a flag would ripple if you waved your hand close to it. But if you were on a planet that had absolutely no gas on it, the flag would not move. Your hand would have a gravitational effect on it due to its mass, but I doubt that you could notice it since it would be movement of less than a micrometer.

Answer 2

The moon has a very, very thin atmosphere, but it would not be thick enough to cause any fluttering of a flag, even if you waved your hand very close to it.

On the other hand, the lack of air would also mean that if the flag was waving, there would be no air to stop it so it would continue waving much longer than on Earth. This happened on the moon when the Armstrong/Aldrin team planted a flag on the moon. The vibrations of them hammering in the flag could be seen in the flag for quite a while after they had finished hammering.

Answer 3

You wouldn't be able to do that because you need the air particles to be flowing around to move something else.  So, for example, if you had a fan in space you wouldn't feel it at all, because there is no air to blow around.

Answer 4

The simplest answer is no.  Nothing comes out of your hand to cause fluttering.  The flutter occurs because your hand displaces and causes turbulence in the air that's already there between it and the calendar.