Excerpt: ... and I have also mentioned how Professor Purser contributed an important element to the dynamical theory. It is, however, Darwin who has persistently deduced from the theory all the various consequences which can be legitimately drawn from it. Darwin, for instance, pointed out that as the moon is receding from us, it must, if we only look far enough back, have been once in practical contact with the earth. It is to Darwin also that we owe many of the other parts of a fascinating theory, either in its ...
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Excerpt: ... and I have also mentioned how Professor Purser contributed an important element to the dynamical theory. It is, however, Darwin who has persistently deduced from the theory all the various consequences which can be legitimately drawn from it. Darwin, for instance, pointed out that as the moon is receding from us, it must, if we only look far enough back, have been once in practical contact with the earth. It is to Darwin also that we owe many of the other parts of a fascinating theory, either in its mathematical or astronomical aspect; but I must take this opportunity of saying, that I do not propose to make Professor Darwin or any of the other mathematicians I have named responsible for all that I shall say in these lectures. I must be myself accountable for the way in which the subject is being treated, as well as for many of 98 the illustrations used, and some of the deductions I have drawn from the subject. It is almost unavoidable for us to make a surmise as to the cause by which the moon had come into this remarkable position close to the earth at the most critical epoch of earth-moon history. With reference to this Professor Darwin has offered an explanation, which seems so exceedingly plausible that it is impossible to resist the notion that it must be correct. I will ask you to think of the earth not as a solid body covered largely with ocean, but as a glowing globe of molten material. In a globe of this kind it is possible for great undulations to be set up. Here is a large vase of water, and by displacing it I can cause the water to undulate with a period which depends on the size of the vessel; undulations can be set up in a bucket of water, the period of these undulations being dependent upon the dimensions of the bucket. Similarly in a vast globe of molten material certain undulations could be set up, and those undulations would have a period depending upon the dimensions of this vibrating mass. We may conjecture a mode in which such...
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