Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: More Damn "Moon's synchronism"



On Wed, 1 Apr 1998, Jim Green wrote:

Brian, it still is not clear to me that it is clear to all the list that
when David Bowman talks about "tides" he _usually_ means plastic or even
elastic deformation of near solids (as in crustal tides.) While many of
the rest of us think of water tides as in the Earth's oceans.

I shouldn't presume to speak for David, but I don't think this accurately
reflects the important points he is trying to make. I *think* he is
saying (and I *know* I would contend) that there should be--**on
average**--two *measurable* tidal bulges of the *oceans* themselves which
are dragged ahead of the instantaneous Earth-Moon line and which are
important contributors to the angular momentum coupling in the Earth-Moon
system. These tidal bulges are raised in situ by the local gradient of
the Moon's gravitational field as it rushes around the Earth at whatever
"speed" it likes. They are almost entirely distinct from the "tides" that
are observed at any given location and that are the secondary--and,
therefore, far less fundamental--result of exceedingly complex resonant
processes acting on the traveling waves spawned by the primary tidal
interaction.

John
-----------------------------------------------------------------
A. John Mallinckrodt http://www.intranet.csupomona.edu/~ajm
Professor of Physics mailto:ajmallinckro@csupomona.edu
Physics Department voice:909-869-4054
Cal Poly Pomona fax:909-869-5090
Pomona, CA 91768-4031 office:Building 8, Room 223