Re: moon's synchronism

[John Mallinckrodt <ajmallinckro@CSUPomona.Edu>]

On Wed, 18 Mar 1998, LUDWIK KOWALSKI wrote:

> I *belive* in what many of you wrote about the cause of the Earth-Moon
> synchronization because I know that your contributions are based on
> experience with reading and teaching the subject. But I am not totally
> persuaded because I am not able to follow the details of the involved 
> logic. So I turned to Interactive Physics. It clearly tells me that 
> synchronization without tidal forces is possible. It is a spectacular 
> show; try it if you have this software tool. Here is what I did. [...]

Ludwik,

I don't understand your interpretation.  The effect you see is precisely
the result of the tidal forces that we are talking about here.  I did the
same type of thing with IP myself last night but I hooked the two
"half-moons" together with a spring and dashpot to see if I could simulate
the dissipation mechanism that circularizes the moon's orbit and damps the
rotation into the phase lock condition.  I clearly see the second, but I
may still be missing a critical ingredient for the first.

John
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