154 FROM NEBULA TO NEBULA 



COMPUTATION OF THE TIDAL FORCES 



It will be remembered that, according to Newton's 

 idea, the waters making up the tidal mounds are con- 

 strued as being drawn thither obliquely from the rounded 

 sides of the earth ; whence he argues that the tidal forces 

 of the sun and moon do not vary in accordance with the 

 rule of inverse squares, as the law of gravitation has it, 

 but of the inverse cubes. As a result of this hypothesis, 

 he estimated the ratio of the sun's effect to thai of the 

 moon as (about) one to four. If we are right, however, 

 in our new hypothesis that the tides are acts of equili- 

 brism, the solar and lunar tidal forces vary, not accord- 

 ing to the exception, but strictly according to the letter 

 of the law itself. Thus calculated, they vary as 180 to 1, 

 this time with the sun having the advantage a total 

 change of 720 points! 



Knowing as we do the relative masses of the earth 

 and sun (1 to 332,000) and the earth's radius as compared 

 with the solar distance (1 to 23,000), we can easily find 

 by applying the law of gravitation that the earth's at- 

 traction on her oceans is, in round numbers, 1600 times 

 as powerful as the sun's. Here, then, is the measure of 

 the conflict of authority between the earth's integral at- 

 traction on the one hand, and the sun's disturbing at- 

 traction on the other; the former commanding the oceans 

 to remain where they are, the latter ordering them to 

 give way and let the earth's center of gravity step forth 

 to greet him. 



What we want next, now, is to get at some way of 

 determining the quantum of this force in tangible terms. 

 Why not in terms of mean ocean depth? As stated be- 

 fore, this depth is given by Murray as 12,480 feet. Di- 

 viding this quantity by 1600 then, gives 7.8 feet, repre- 

 senting the intensity of the sun's protest against the 

 earth's own disposition of her ocean waters though it 

 may not, indeed, actually dislodge them, seeing that the 

 earth, in the course of her rotation, keeps presenting a 

 new face to the sun before his effect at any one point can 

 arrive at completion or become permanent. 



