They're gonna fire the World Cannon

because slowly but surely it (the Moon) is pulling itself away from the Earth's orbit...
I can give you a few more details about this.

As you know, we always see the same face of the Moon. That's because the Moon rotates on its axis in the same amount of time that it revolves around the Earth. This is not a coincidence. It is due to tidal coupling between the Earth and Moon. The Moon is tidally locked to the Earth.

Since the Earth rotates faster than the Moon orbits, the Earth rotates through the tides (which are always aligned with the Moon.) The friction due to the tidal waters flowing over the Earth's surface causes the Earth's rotation to slow down about a quarter millisecond per century. (Remember Southland Tales?) The slight loss of angular momentum is transfered to the Moon, so the Moon is spiraling away from the Earth at a rate of about one inch per year.

As the Moon spirals out, its time to orbit the Earth becomes slightly longer. Meanwhile, the Earth's rotation will continue to slow down until it is the same as the Moon's orbital period. At that time, the Earth will always show the same face to the Moon and vice versa. The Moon will always be over the same spot on the Earth. The Earth will be tidally locked to the Moon.

At that point, the tidal effects of the Sun will start to slow the Earth's rotation even further and the Earth will rotate more slower than the Moon's orbit. That will cause a renewed tidal effect by the Moon, causing the Earth to start speeding up. It will also begin to draw the Moon in closer. If the Moon comes closer than the Roche limit (about 10,000 miles) the Moon will break up and form a ring around the Earth.

But this is all billions of years in the future. For example, about 300 million years ago, an Earth day was 22 hours and there were 400 days in a year. Our rotation has slowed down about two hours since then.

This was all discussed in my third Astronomy lecture a couple of weeks ago.
Things like this has always fascinated my ass. But then I always loved the sound of a sound theory too.

-Fred
Pirates, vampires, zombies, ninjas, ghouls, aliens, goblins, monsters, robots, sorcerers, undead, werewolves, demons, mutated dinosaur-cyborgs and those pesky phone salesmen! The shotgun is a one-size-fits-all solution!
DrPaul wrote:But this is all billions of years in the future.
That's what I was saying, that it was all so far into the future... There probably won't be human life by the time all that happens...

Fred Buer wrote:Things like this has always fascinated my ass.
Me Too... Unlike Doc though, I never took those types of courses... I kind of wish I had gone into that field though... Maybe today I'd be one of those guys over there breaking a 10 Billion Dollar Canon... :lol:
The Paved Straight Road, Won't Always Get You Farther Than The Winding Dirt Road...


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Good stuff Doc... perhaps you should post your lecture notes here, I would seriously love to read them. I was very much into astronomy when I was younger and still have a knack for losing hours reading over this stuff.

-Cub. =o)
Me too.

I was one of those kids that had parents that bought them astronomy books for kids. Used to read them before I went to bed. Probably why I'm such a nerd now. Those books were so dated too. This was back before they figured out that the universe will just keep expanding and there will be no great crunch... before they were even really talking about dark matter. We've come a long way.

Anyway, I even thought of getting into that field at one point but I ve spent too much money on school and am too old to go to school for 8 years to become a professor.

Maybe I ll just sit in on some lectures later in life. In some Canadian provinces you can go to university for free once you are age 65. Maybe I ll do that =)
Matt
Anyway, I even thought of getting into that field at one point but I've spent too much money on school and am too old to go to school for 8 years to become a professor.
Don't let age stop you.

I started out as a business major, switched to art, then photography then film making. I didn't finish and dropped out for seven years.

I started all over again from scratch in Physics when I was 29. Got a B.S. M.S. and Ph.D. in 8 years. I was older than many of my professors.

Never stop learning.
Good stuff Doc... perhaps you should post your lecture notes here, I would seriously love to read them.


Well, these aren't the notes exactly. But I have weekly summaries already posted that review the things we cover in class each week. There's not much detail in these summaries since they each compress four hours of lecture into a ten minute read. But you can look at any of the weekly summaries here. You might find it fun.

Remember. This class is not for science majors, so it's pretty simple.

Historical Perspective
http://home.comcast.net/~pdrallos131681 ... Review.pdf
Earth/Moon System I
http://home.comcast.net/~pdrallos131681 ... Review.pdf
Earth/Moon II
http://home.comcast.net/~pdrallos131681 ... Review.pdf
Terrestrial Planets
http://home.comcast.net/~pdrallos131681 ... Review.pdf
Jovian Planets, Asteroids, Comets
http://home.comcast.net/~pdrallos131681 ... Review.pdf
Spectroscopy/The Sun
http://home.comcast.net/~pdrallos131681 ... Review.pdf
DrPaul wrote:
Good stuff Doc... perhaps you should post your lecture notes here, I would seriously love to read them.


Well, these aren't the notes exactly. But I have weekly summaries already posted that review the things we cover in class each week. There's not much detail in these summaries since they each compress four hours of lecture into a ten minute read. But you can look at any of the weekly summaries here. You might find it fun.

Remember. This class is not for science majors, so it's pretty simple.

Historical Perspective
http://home.comcast.net/~pdrallos131681 ... Review.pdf
Earth/Moon System I
http://home.comcast.net/~pdrallos131681 ... Review.pdf
Earth/Moon II
http://home.comcast.net/~pdrallos131681 ... Review.pdf
Terrestrial Planets
http://home.comcast.net/~pdrallos131681 ... Review.pdf
Jovian Planets, Asteroids, Comets
http://home.comcast.net/~pdrallos131681 ... Review.pdf
Spectroscopy/The Sun
http://home.comcast.net/~pdrallos131681 ... Review.pdf
Nice!

-Cub. =o)