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From: marty@puppsr5.Princeton.EDU (Marty Ryba)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: Synchronous rotation
Message-ID: <3973@idunno.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 9 Nov 90 20:30:34 GMT
References: <7712.273a7b89@uwovax.uwo.ca> <1990Nov9.190858.11889@ns.network.com>
Sender: news@idunno.Princeton.EDU
Reply-To: marty@pulsar.princeton.edu
Organization: Dept. of Physics, Princeton U.
Lines: 18

In article <1990Nov9.190858.11889@ns.network.com>, logajan@ns.network.com (John Logajan) writes:
|> 17001_1511@uwovax.uwo.ca Phil Stooke writes:
|> >This produces stresses and movements in the crust
|> >which involve some energy dissipation. Therefore energy is slowly being
|> >lost from the system, and that manifests itself as a gradual slowing of the
|> >rotation period, until syncronous rotation is reached.
|> 
|> Okay -- so where does the angular momentum go?  It has to be conserved.
|> 

Into the orbit.  Not very noticeable, since the relative period change is
decreased by a factor of roughly (radius of moon/radius of orbit)^2

-- 
Marty Ryba                      | slave physics grad student
Princeton University            | They don't care if I exist,
Pulsars   Unlimited             | let alone what my opinions are!
marty@pulsar.princeton.edu      | Asbestos gloves always on when reading mail