# 5/5/2000
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-5-2000/16752
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [September 14, 1999, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-5-2000/16752 "1999-09-14T23:12:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Snappy\_Plissken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snappy_Plissken)
#### Post date: [September 14, 1999, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-5-2000/16752/1 "1999-09-14T23:12:00Z")
Hallo. I’m sure some of y’all have heard how on May 5th, 2000, all (or most? I’m unsure) of the planets will align and supposedly the Earth will ah, suffer severe gravitational pulls and the magnetic field will collapse, and there’ll be lots of earthquakes and tornadoes and volcanic eruptions until we’re all dead and gone.
What do y’all think of this? Hogwash? Slight truth in the matter? Oh-My-God-We’re-All-Gonna-Die?
Personally I believe we’ll have slightly higher tides/waves, we’ll feel heavier, magnets might be a li’l off…but that’s it.
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Snappy, The Crazy Toddite - Friend of Skippy
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### Author:  [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)
#### Post date: [September 14, 1999, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-5-2000/16752/2 "1999-09-14T23:18:00Z")
Don’t worry about it. Scientists are creating a whole new Big Bang on Long Island later this year, so there won’t be any planets to align for a good 3-4 billion years.
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Livin’ on Tums, Vitamin E and Rogaine
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### Author:  [@David\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_B)
#### Post date: [September 14, 1999, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-5-2000/16752/3 "1999-09-14T23:21:00Z")
Oh, no – the planets are aligning…again.
Yes, again.
We’ve been through this before. Some guys even wrote an allegedly non-fiction book that predicted all sorts of horrible things when the planets “aligned” back when I was in junior high. Needless to say, the book had to be moved out of the non-fiction section…
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### Author:  [@Persephone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Persephone)
#### Post date: [September 14, 1999, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-5-2000/16752/4 "1999-09-14T23:40:00Z")
Didn’t the planets align just a few years ago?
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### Author:  [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)
#### Post date: [September 14, 1999, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-5-2000/16752/5 "1999-09-14T23:55:00Z")
David B wrote:
> [@](#):
>
> We’ve been through this before. Some guys even wrote an allegedly non-fiction book that predicted all sorts of horrible things when the planets “aligned” back when I was in junior high. Needless to say, the book had to be moved out of the non-fiction section…
I remember this book. It was titled _The Jupiter Effect_. The cover depicted all 9 planets lined up in a row on one side of the sun. There really was a planetary alignment due to happen when the book said it would, but this “alignment” only involved having all of the planets within the same 95-degree arc of one another on the same side of the sun.
Oh, and needless to say, the world did not end. 🙂
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I’m not flying fast, just orbiting low.
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### Author:  [@Snappy\_Plissken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snappy_Plissken)
#### Post date: [September 15, 1999, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-5-2000/16752/6 "1999-09-15T00:15:00Z")
My mother read the book 5/5/2000 and now preaches to me about…it all. I understand why it’s a big moment in astrological/astronomical history since…it’s kinda rare to get them in a perfect line and all, but…eh, world didn’t end afore, shouldn’t end now. I read the first chapter…gawl, it was horridly stupid. I mean, was telling about animals/people hiding in little holes in the ground until…radiation? or something just kinda killed them all. It cracked me up!
Just now talked to mom. She said, “Awww” at the reactions of y’all. Hehehe.
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Snappy, The Crazy Toddite - Friend of Skippy
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### Author:  [@hansel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hansel)
#### Post date: [September 15, 1999, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-5-2000/16752/7 "1999-09-15T00:18:00Z")
I believe it was in _Skeptical Inquirer_ where I read that I exert more gravitational influence on you when standing three feet away, than all other eight planets would if they were in a perfectly straight line, which they never are.
Theories about the disastrous gravitational effects of planetary alignments display nothing more than a profoud misunderstanding of the distances involved.
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### Author:  [@Just\_Ed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Ed)
#### Post date: [September 15, 1999, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-5-2000/16752/8 "1999-09-15T00:41:00Z")
Hmmm . . . I guess we’re all assuming we’re going to _get_ to 5/5/2000. Good to see the Y2K paranoia isn’t as widespread as I had thought.
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### Author:  [@AuraSeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuraSeer)
#### Post date: [September 15, 1999, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-5-2000/16752/9 "1999-09-15T01:04:00Z")
The Master himself has written on this subject: [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1\_159b.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_159b.html)
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### Author:  [@Strainger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strainger)
#### Post date: [September 15, 1999, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-5-2000/16752/10 "1999-09-15T01:24:00Z")
Aw, man! That’s really gonna screw up Cinco de Mayo!
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### Author:  [@bantmof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bantmof)
#### Post date: [September 15, 1999, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-5-2000/16752/11 "1999-09-15T02:32:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Hallo. I’m sure some of y’all have heard how on May 5th, 2000, all (or most? I’m unsure) of the planets will align and supposedly the Earth will ah, suffer severe gravitational pulls and the magnetic field will collapse, and there’ll be lots of earthquakes and tornadoes and volcanic eruptions until we’re all dead and gone.
Yeah! We’re all gonna die!!! There has of course never been a planetary alignment before in all of time, and the effects will rip the earth apart! Scientists know this and are conspiring to withhold the information from the public to avoid creating mass panic. The stock market will crash. It’s gonna be bad, man!
> [@](#):
>
> we’ll feel heavier, magnets might be a li’l off
You’re not going to feel heavier. And how would magnets be affected?
Why not get a pocket calculator and run the numbers yourself if you’re worried about it? You can find all the required masses and distances on the web, and the formula is G_M1_M2/D^2 - you sum the results per body - you can probably assume they’re all colinear and ignore the cosine effect. Don’t forget to add in the moon and the sun.
## After you do that, get back to me on just exactly how you’d feel heavier and what the deal with the magnets is, coz maybe I won’t have to go into survivalism mode after all.
peas on earth
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### Author:  [@skupla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skupla)
#### Post date: [September 15, 1999, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-5-2000/16752/12 "1999-09-15T10:36:00Z")
“The Master Himself” had something on how many degrees the arc was before.
– for example, 83 degrees in 1817, and 46 degrees in 1307–
does anyone know just how many degrees its supposed to be this time??
Anyway if it was serious, and I dont think it is. I think the Americans would’ve panicked already. You know, they’d be digging themselves into the ground and starting all kinds of new religious groups.
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [September 15, 1999, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-5-2000/16752/13 "1999-09-15T11:01:00Z")
Okay, recently I’ve been informed that civilization as we know it will end on the following dates; 9 September 1999, 1 January 2000, 30 January 2000 (but only if the Bills win the Superbowl) and 5 May 2000. Are there any other dates I should watch for? I’m planning next year’s vacation schedule and I’d like to avoid a conflict with the end of the world.
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### Author:  [@vanillanice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanillanice)
#### Post date: [September 15, 1999, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-5-2000/16752/14 "1999-09-15T13:40:00Z")
People born on that day will have really unbalanced horoscopes!
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [September 15, 1999, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-5-2000/16752/15 "1999-09-15T14:22:00Z")
Mike, I know I’ve heard this somewhere, but I can’t remember the exact date mentioned – the ‘theory’ (hehhah! thet’s a kneeslappur, thet iz!) that the Mayan calendar ends sometime in the century after next (IIRC?), which is supposed to mean, time ends. Anybody else hear this or know more about the alleged ‘exact’ date?
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### Author:  [@Alphagene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alphagene)
#### Post date: [September 15, 1999, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-5-2000/16752/16 "1999-09-15T15:33:00Z")
The date the Mayan calendar ends is 13.0.0.0 4 Ahau 3 K’ank’in.
Oh, you want that in Gregorian? December 23, 2012.
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### Author:  [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)
#### Post date: [September 15, 1999, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-5-2000/16752/17 "1999-09-15T19:26:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> 30 January 2000 (but only if the Bills win the Superbowl)
Yeah, like THAT is gonna happen! \ \
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### Author:  [@Snappy\_Plissken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snappy_Plissken)
#### Post date: [September 15, 1999, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-5-2000/16752/18 "1999-09-15T21:39:00Z")
Well ya see, if the magnetic field is disrupted…oops. Didn’t mean…magnets. Hehe. Meant um…compasses. Pardon. But I can see how everyone’d know why _those_ got all screwed up. And you’d feel heavier because all the gravitational pulls (as per se mi mama) from all the planets and junk would…not only affect tides and stuff but the Earth’s gravity. I suppose we’d all feel like post-menopausal women and feel fat and bloated and cranky? Eee. We kinda didn’t die this last Sept. 9, did we? Or am I…in heaven?
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Snappy, The Crazy Toddite - Friend of Skippy
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [September 16, 1999, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-5-2000/16752/19 "1999-09-16T03:20:00Z")
Dammit, now I’m going to have to replace all that cheapass Mayan software I bought before 2012 or my computer will crash because of the Y13-4A3K problem.
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### Author:  [@MrKnowItAll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrKnowItAll)
#### Post date: [September 16, 1999, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-5-2000/16752/20 "1999-09-16T04:36:00Z")
What is the freakin’ deal! Are people just not happy unless they can see oblivion in the near future? It’s always something, isn’t it?
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