[LEAPSECS] Far past and far future

Clive D.W. Feather clive at davros.org
Thu May 26 17:54:13 EDT 2011



> But I took

> some numbers from the Williams paper that was cited and played with them in

> a spreadsheet. These suggest that about 90% of the terrestrial rotational

> angular momentum reappears as lunar orbital angular momentum. On the other

> hand, I can't see where the rest of it would go - apparently observations

> show no indication that the Earth's orbit is growing.


I've also just realized that the numbers are within the range of
experimental error. I get the following angular momenta out of
Williams:

Earth Moon Total
2450 My ago 7450 27500 34950
900 My ago 6730 28100 34830
620 My ago 6400 28400 34800
Now 5840 28900 34740

That's a total loss of under 1%. Some of the source numbers are +/-3%, and
no doubt there are rounding errors in my calculations.

--
Clive D.W. Feather | If you lie to the compiler,
Email: clive at davros.org | it will get its revenge.
Web: http://www.davros.org | - Henry Spencer
Mobile: +44 7973 377646


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