242 FROM NEBULA TO NEBULA 



Criticism of the Tidal-Evolution Theory 



Any theory that breeds enigmas faster than it dispels 

 them is ipso facto false and worthless. Having ex- 

 plained, as he imagined, the moon's present posture by a 

 series of assumptions on assumptions, Darwin should 

 have gone further and proved all those assumptions. In 

 this long series, not one of his assumptions is universally 

 conceded by the astronomical profession the Laplacian 

 hypothesis is obsolescent, if not actually obsolete; the 

 lunar volcanic theory is contradicted by a large and grow- 

 ing faction who insist that the lunar asperities are due to 

 meteoric impacts ; the Planetesimalists assert that the in- 

 ternal heat of the planets is of later genesis than the 

 original ingathering of the nebulous matter ; and so on. 

 In any event, it is quite as sensible and scientific to accept 

 the moon's fixed attitude as an ultimate fact of nature, 

 as to swallow a dozen other even greater uncertainties 

 and incomprehensibilities along with it in the effort to 

 appear wise. But let me show you the physical absurd- 

 ity of this tidal-evolution theory by a simple calculation 

 which anyone can follow and verify : 



The mass of the earth is estimated to be about 6,000, 

 000 quadrillions of tons, hence that of the moon, which is 

 about 1-81 as large, is, in round numbers, 74,000 quad- 

 rillions. The question is, how thick would have to be a 

 cable of steel, of the tensile strength of 40 tons to the 

 square inch, in order to equal the gravitational attraction 

 between the earth and the moon when the latter was sup- 

 posedly at the earth's surface, as it must have been in 

 order that it may have been flung off as Darwin describes. 

 Dividing, first, by 40 gives us 1,850 quadrillions of 

 square-inches as the area of the cross-section of the cable. 

 Now, the formula for the area of a circle being Trr 2 , per- 

 forming the operation gives us the thickness of the cable, 

 in round numbers, as 24,000 miles ! That is to say, Dar- 

 win and all who agree with him (which is to say, all the 

 scientific world, with very few exceptions) gravely assert 

 that by reason of her slow contraction due to cooling the 

 earth acquired so much increased axial velocity as to en- 



