The Ebb and the Flow
The tides, as we all know, are a direct result to the gravitational pull of the moon, but there is actually a lot more to that. The tides cycle from high to low twice per day even though the moon only passes over any given spot on the earth once per day, so what’s up with that? My earth science training reminds me that the tides are actually influenced by BOTH the moon and the sun. Of course, the earth stays in orbit around the sun due to the gravitational pull of the sun. That gravitational force is strong enough to hold eight or nine planets in orbit, with Earth being only the third from the sun (Mercury and Venus being closer). Obviously the object on the bubble of planethood is Pluto, which we were all taught was the ninth and furthest planet in our solar system, but is now on-again, off-again based on its inability to meet the planet standards as to its ability to clear out other junk in its orbit like the other planets do. Pluto got demoted to dwarf planet in 2006 and for the last 16 years it has had its face pressed up against the solar system glass door. If we demoted people based on their inability to keep their pathway tidy, I think we would have a lot more dwarves around, so I’m sort of on Pluto’s side and feel its getting unduly dissed. I think the fact that its the canary in the solar system coal mine makes it worthy enough for planetary status. If the sun’s gravitational force weakens, which celestial science teaches us will eventually happen, the first sign for us would presumably be that the furthest planet should get vamoosed to the far reaches of the galaxy. If this were a voting issue, I’m sure both Neptune and Uranus would vote to keep Pluto in place to give them some time to get their affairs in order when the apocalypse starts to arrive.
In addition to the Sun’s gravitational force, the Earth also has its own gravitational force as I am reminded each evening as I try to get up off of my sofa after a few hours of TV. That gravity comes mostly from the mass of the earth, but the axial spin for the Earth also adds to the gravitational pull. In the same way that the Sun’s gravity is what holds the solar system in tact, the Earth’s gravity is what holds the Earth together and keeps our feet on the ground. I am a bit curious about whether I weigh a bit less each day when the tide is high. If the moon’s gravity (the moon is only 17% the mass of the Earth, so its gravity is more or less only 17% as great as Earth’s gravitational force, reduced even further by its distance. It is estimated that the moon was born from a collision of something with Earth and that this wad of mass that became the moon was initially only 15,000 miles from Earth, as opposed to its current 238,000 miles. It’s orbit moves it about 2 inches further away from us each year, so it will eventually vamoose itself, at least from Earth’s orbit. i don’t know if that’s scheduled to happen before or after the Sun gets around to releasing an object of the monk’s size from its own gravitational pull. Quite frankly, its too painful to contemplate all of this, but I do still want to know how much less I weigh at high tide. And which high tide is best for weight reduction since one tide is when the moon is near and the other daily high tide is when the moon is opposite the Earth on the far side? So, I guess a billion years ago, I would have been a featherweight due to the overpoweringly close-by moon and my friend Mike at 159 pounds now would have had a hard time staying on Earth at all, and might just as well have moved to the moon and give up the battle.
If all of this weight adjustment is true on earth because of the moon, imagine what the affect is on objects on the moon as impacted by Earth and its gravitational force. As we are on the cusp of repopulating the moon these days, we should spend a moment sorting this weight issue out. People on earth govern their whole lives on the issue of weight, so isn’t it reasonable to assume that people on the moon will ultimately do the same?
What has caused me to think so deeply about the tides and therefore gravitational and tidal forces, is that its a very clear and crisp day and I am sitting here staring out at the Pacific Ocean to the West. I can see forty miles of ocean out there and today it feels like I could almost touch it. That’s a lot of water out there and it is startling to me that the moon can exert such force on that vast ocean as to create some two feet of seawater uplift that makes for the high tide. Two feet may not seem like a lot, but depending on the shallowness or deepness of the coastal incline, it can cause as much as a forty foot difference like up in the Bay of Fundy in Canada. I remember when we visited the Bay of Bengal, there was about a mile or more of tidal flats such that if you were out there at the low tide shoreline you would literally have to run as fast as you could to stay ahead of the twice daily tidal water rise. In western France, Mont Saint Michel experiences the same phenomenon with what are called fast and fickle tides often causing casual observers (and long ago, prisoners incarcerated on the island).
Life is all about ebb and flow whether we are in synch with the moon-based tides or not. I know that my moods and my energy tend to ebb and flow and only sometimes can I attribute the cause and effect with any degree of certainty. Things just seem to move cyclically. I was talking with an old college friend who will be speaking this week in my ethics course. He and I think more alike than not politically. He is a physician who spent his career in the military as a flight surgeon. We were both feeling very pensive about the approaching midterm elections. This week the vast majority of punditry seems focused on the fact that the political temperature of the nation seems most influenced by the current economic concerns that come along with the current surge in inflation reporting. I wonder whether the fear of inflation is driven mostly by the recollections of what we lived through in the 1970’s or whether it is more temporal than that and just reflects the daily gas and grocery pain that we are all feeling every day. One has to recognize that the tug and pull of inflation is that the medicine for inflation involves the monetary adjustments that give rise to interest rates and thereby dampen economic activity. One thing that is certain is that as much as high tide causes water damage problems, we all know how smelly low tide can get. As soon as the back of inflation is broken (and it will be), we will be screaming for more steam from our fiscal and monetary engines to get the economy out of the recession that restrictive monetary and fiscal policy will drive it into. Ebb and flow.
As I prepare for the midterms and still not wanting to admit defeat and relinquish my normally optimistic mean, I do want to remember, no matter the outcome, that life is all about ebbing and flowing and as stinky as the interregnum can be when things don’t go your way, the tide will rise again. Hemingway said it best in his first major novel, The Sun Also Rises….., which makes me think he was in the same pensive mood I find myself in these days. And here’s the thing, he was right and the ebb and flow of the world goes on.