100 FROM NEBULA TO NEBULA 



sion, the paltry space of only 4% inches, or 22 times less 

 than what the case requires. For the tide to reach the 

 high altitude of 8y 2 feet that Newton gave it, the tidal 

 force would have to accumulate for nearly a month ! To 

 my mind, however, it is quite as preposterous to suppose 

 such cumulativeness to take place for the period of a day 

 as for a year, and I hold that the tidal force and the tidal 

 effect are mutually commensurate from one second to 

 another, and that it is for each individual second to tell 

 its own tale. To get an idea of the woful inadequacy of 

 this ratio of 1 to 2,000,000, then, the reader may mentally 

 compare a tub of water to Niagara 's overflow in the space 

 of a full minute! To just this extent does Newton's hy- 

 pothesis fall short of the actual dynamical requirements. 

 In making his computations of the tidal heights, even 

 on his own theory, Newton committed two serious over- 

 sights. The first of these was in erroneously treating the 

 entire thickness of the equatorial ring as being centrifu- 

 galized instead of only one-half of it. The other half of 

 the ring is, of course, rightfully in place, being a part of 

 the original ideal spherical shape. For it should be plain 

 to any person of intelligence that subtracting a unit from 

 one of two equal quantities and adding that unit to the 

 other quantity will make a difference of two units, and not 

 merely of one. Accepting as correct the estimate of the 

 earth's polar diameter at 7,899 miles, and of the equatori- 

 al at 7,926 miles, given out by the National Geographi- 

 cal Society, the disparity between the two is 27 miles. 

 Were the earth molded into a perfect sphere, the terres- 

 trial diameter would be uniformly 7912.5 miles. To de- 

 form the earth, then, into its present shape required the 

 centrifugalizing to the equatorial belt of 13% miles of 

 thickness from the polar axis. But we must not overlook 

 the circumstance that this excess matter is evenly dis- 

 tributed all around the equator, consequently the thick- 

 ness of the ring at any given point exactly on the equator 

 is 131/2 miles and the centrifugalized part of it only 6% 

 miles, or only 35,640 feet as compared with the 85,472 feet 

 adopted by Newton. Had Newton done what rightly he 

 should have done, and divided his quantity by two, he 



