🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1h50c7INNees@news.aero.org>, shag@aero.org (Robert M.
Unverzagt) wrote:
> 
> In article <scottj-211292091243@iamac-1.dml.georgetown.edu> scottj@magic.dml.georgetown.edu (John L. Scott) writes:
> > The high tide facing the moon is, of course, explained by the gravitational
> > pull of the moon.  However, there have been at least two explanations for
> > the high tide on the opposite side of the earth:
> > 
> >    A.  The moon stretches the earth
> >    B.  Centrifugal pseudo-force
> > 
> > So... which is it, A, B, both, or neither?
> > 
> Neither.  Well, sort of A, I guess -- it depends what you
> mean by "strethes the earth".  Bad ascii graphics follow:
> 
> 			                            _______
>                               /       \
>           __                 /         \
>          /  \                A    B    C
>          \__/                \         /
>          moon	                \_______/
> 			                             earth
> 
> Points A, B, and C all experience some amount of "pull" from
> the moon.  It's easy to see (as you point out above) that
> point A is pulled more than B, the center of the earth.  It's
> also easy to see from the above diagram that point C feels
> less pull than B;  therefore C "rises" relative to B, just as
> A does.
> 
> Is that what you mean by "stretches the earth"?
> 
> Shag

Thanks for the reply.  I got "stretches the earth" from somebody else's
post.  I took it to mean that the earth's shape was actually deformed to
the point that it had a noticeable effect of the oceans.  I was skeptical
of that idea.

So, are you saying that the moon pulls the earth away from the water on the
far side?  That certainly sounds reasonable to me.

--John L. Scott