Talk:Earth

Semi-protected edit request on 5 November 2023

Template:Edit semi-protected Change:

“Through tidal locking, the Moon always faces Earth with the same side, which causes tides, stabilizes Earth's axis, and gradually slows its rotation.”

To:

“The Moon’s gravity causes tides on Earth, which gradually slow its rotation. It also helps stabilize Earth's axis. As a result of tidal locking, the same side of the Moon always faces Earth.”

[The moon would still cause the tides whether it were locked or not!] The Old Font (talk) 15:54, 5 November 2023 (UTC)

File:Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done for now: I agree that the phrasing is ambiguous, but I think the proposed wording is still ambiguous/clunky. Which body is the it in "its rotation"? Also, tidal locking can happen regardless of ocean tides, yes? Being generous, I would interpret the present sentence to mean "through [[the process of]] tidal locking, [[this list of things happen]]." Not opposed to changing it, just not sure about this proposed alternative. Brevity is to be encouraged in an article's lead. TheSavageNorwegian 18:19, 5 November 2023 (UTC)

It’s not a question of ambiguous phrasing. The existing sentence pretty unambiguously states as fact something that is patently totally incorrect. This is inexcusable in the lead section of an article as important as ‘Earth’. However one interprets ‘it’ (and it could only be the earth – the moon’s relative rotation having already slowed to a standstill), none of the listed effects is due to tidal locking. The Old Font (talk) 14:45, 9 December 2023 (UTC)

Y <translate> Done</translate> – changed to The Moon’s gravity helps stabilize Earth's axis, and also causes tides which gradually slow Earth's rotation. As a result of tidal locking, the same side of the Moon always faces Earth. Ocean tides are in fact by far the main contributor to the tidal locking seen in the Earth-Moon system, so this phrasing is fine. Tollens (talk) 00:30, 11 December 2023 (UTC)

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The lead sucks

For me at least, the lead feels like a bunch of statistics and facts being toss into a bowl of salad. There's no overarching theme or a sense of causality that the reader can follow through. A better lead should be much shorter and be more selective. CactiStaccingCrane (talk) 17:37, 7 January 2024 (UTC)

MOS:LEAD suggests that it should be no longer than four paragraphs for longer articles and typically three to four. It also has to summarise the contents of the article, so being shorter and more selective is difficult. Mikenorton (talk) 22:20, 7 January 2024 (UTC)

The lead feels so long and a sore to read. To an another example, Britannica's article about the Earth has a lead that's longer than ours but it is much more pleasant to read because the information is not as disjointed. CactiStaccingCrane (talk) 18:29, 13 January 2024 (UTC)

Here's my proposed outline for the new lead, with each bullet point is a paragraph not longer than 125 words as a rule of thumb:

1. General info, Earth's surface, water and atmosphere
2. Earth's cycles, inner structure and magnetic field
3. Earth's orbital, rotational and astronomical properties
4. Earth's history (with less focus on humans/climate change and more towards other parts of history in general)

CactiStaccingCrane (talk) 18:33, 13 January 2024 (UTC)

If you want to understand how the current lead was developed, see this lengthy discussion. Mikenorton (talk) 18:42, 13 January 2024 (UTC)

Thank you so much for the link. Unfortunately I really need to go to sleep now so see you in ~10 hours. CactiStaccingCrane (talk) 18:44, 13 January 2024 (UTC)

Unsourced statements

A bunch of the sentences and statements in the article are unsourced, and considering this is an FA I feel like it has to be dealt with at some point. Blue Jay (talk) 12:32, 11 January 2024 (UTC)

Considering that the article has about 600 sentences, you might want to be a little more specific... Dhrm77 (talk) 15:20, 11 January 2024 (UTC)

"Home Planet" listed at Redirects for discussion

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