Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!lll-crg!lll-lcc!qantel!ihnp4!gargoyle!oddjob!matt From: matt@oddjob.UUCP (Matt Crawford) Newsgroups: talk.origins Subject: Re: 3 *million*, not 3 billion Message-ID: <1480@oddjob.UUCP> Date: Tue, 16-Sep-86 18:32:15 EDT Article-I.D.: oddjob.1480 Posted: Tue Sep 16 18:32:15 1986 Date-Received: Mon, 22-Sep-86 23:39:24 EDT References: <1081@rlgvax.UUCP> Reply-To: matt@oddjob.UUCP (Matt Crawford) Organization: U. Chicago, Astronomy & Astrophysics Lines: 36 Keywords: corrects a 3 order of magnitude typo Oh no, is Ted Holden still trotting out the same hackneyed ideas? I tuned out of net.origins eons ago (or perhaps only 6000 years ago if you believe the incontrovertible biblical evidence). I saw Steve Fritzinger's article because it was in the brand-new newsgroup talk.origins here. I, and others, trashed Ted's pull-of-Saturn argument by showing that the earth would have to be INSIDE SATURN'S ATMOSPHERE to reduce the effective gravity at the near and far points by 50%. Note that you cannot just calculate the distance from Saturn at which Saturns gravitational field has a strength of 0.5g. You have to find the distance at which the variation in Saturns field over one earth radius is 0.5g, since most of the pull acts equally on the earth and on a creature at the "north pole" (sub- Saturn point), and hence does not help to diminish the so-called "felt effect". You need to have Saturn pull on the creature with a force 0.5g stronger than Saturn's pull on the earth as a whole. Anyone is free to solve this problem themselves. Just find the distance R such that: force of Saturns pull at distance (R - earth's radius) = (force of Saturns pull at distance R) + 0.5g I'll watch for rebuttals from Ted for a week or so, then tune out again. Bye folks, and enjoy the show. Steve: you misunderstand tidal forces (which is what we are dealing with here). At the "equator", a creature gets about the same force toward Saturn as the earth does, so their is no net "sideways" pull. In fact, the net effect is an INCREASE in gravity around the "equator", and a DECREASE at both "poles". _____________________________________________________ Matt University crawford@anl-mcs.arpa Crawford of Chicago ihnp4!oddjob!matt