Quote:
On 2002-03-20 10:03, Gary Redmond wrote:
I must stand by the word "conjecture", and find fault with "extrapolation".
The facts *again* are:
The Moon does run slow (recession of nodes), however there is no evidence that it is "slowing".
The Earth does run slow (leap second), again there is no evidence that it is "slowing". The word "slowing" is conjecture.
How could you extrapolate a stoppage when you have no proof of slowing?
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We do have evidence of both.
First, we know that the Moon is getting farther away from the Earth--its orbital distance is increasing.
"Lunar laser ranging establishes the current rate of retreat of the moon from Earth at 3.82±0.07 cm/year."
-- The Talk.Origins Website
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/moonrec.html)
By orbital mechanics we see that the Moon's orbital period has to be slowing down as well. So, yes, the lunations are getting longer.
We also know that in the past, the length of the day was shorter. For instance, Devonian corals show 400 growth rings per year. Assuming that the year was the same length (in seconds) then we are looking at a 22 hour day.
--Myths about Gravity and Tides
http://www.jal.cc.il.us/~mikolajsawicki/tides_new2.pdf
So again, yes, the days are getting longer.
The evidence is out there, so I disagree with your calling all this
conjecture.
_________________
Jeff Schwarz
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Geo3gh on 2002-03-21 10:35 ]</font>
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Geo3gh on 2002-03-21 10:36 ]</font>