Re: astronomy

[Leigh Palmer <palmer@sfu.ca>]

> The answer the book expects, however,  is that there woun't be no tides on a
> watery Moon, but we all know this, no?

It hadn't occurred to me that there was an answer book for this text.
However I just found an unopened "Instructor's Manual" by Leo P. Connolly
(with whom I've published, it turns out) which has answers to the review
questions. Leo writes:

  "The Moon would experience stronger tides than on Earth because the
  Earth, which produces the tides, is much more massive than the Moon,
  which produces tides on the Earth. A compensating factor is the Moon's
  smaller size, which reduces the effect somewhat. Since the Moon rotates
  once during each orbit, the tidal bulges would not appear to move
  relative to the surface of the Moon."

Somehow I can't find great fault with this answer. Leo has left out the
explicit mention of hypothetical oceans, but I have to agree with his
answer. Any tidal height variation would be miniscule given a 0.4 uHz
(uHz = microhertz) driving force.

Leigh