milli360 wrote
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Your paper, as it stands now, does not show equations, or quantities. It's difficult to say whether your calculations are right or not.
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The menu on my website has always provided access to a page describing the constants and equations, and a page giving the calculated data used to plot the graphs. Direct links to the equations and quantities are now conveniently available in my reply to Roy Batty above, posted: Tue Sep 07, 2004 8:10 pm.
To make it easier for you to determine whether my calculations are right or not, here is a copy of my
Tide Program used for the calculations. It is written in MS-DOS QBASIC, a very generic computer language. Be aware that finite-bit-length representation of numbers limits computer accuracy in calculating angle theta in radians, which precludes obtaining zero values for cos(theta) at 90 and 270 degrees. Very small numbers are returned instead, giving forces ranging from 1E-11 through 1E-20 with the single precision numbers used in the program. In the table of data I replaced those insignificant small numbers with zeroes.
I look forward to learning of any errors that would invalidate the model, the equations, or their implementation in the program.
milli360 also wrote:
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When we say that something is moving uphill, we mean that it is moving from an area of lower potential to one of higher potential. The Mississippi is flowing downhill, of course, even though its waters are moving farther away from the center of the earth.
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When water is pumped into a water tower, a pump provides the force to raise the water from a lower potential to a higher potential. In that last sentence the word ‘raise’ means ‘moved farther from the center of the earth.’ The water is pumped uphill, so to speak. Similarly, the Mississippi flows from a region of lower potential to a region of higher potential, pumped by the centrifugal force of the earth’s rotation. The ocean potential is higher at the equator by virtue of the centrifugal force that brings water there and holds it there. If the earth stopped spinning, the ocean would begin to run downhill toward the poles because of its higher potential at the equator, making the Mississippi flow downhill and northward. And if it would run downhill with no centrifugal force, it is centrifugal force that now makes it run uphill.