I don't have any time for complex maths now, since my household is over 32 hours
without running water, and it will be mid-morning tomorrow at best when I can
get it running again.
The sole practical function of the equatorial bulge is to match the sea beds and
dry lands to the effects of centrifugal force on the fluid seas--i.e. to keep
the equtorial regions from being swamped. Indeed, this functional approach is
what convinced Newton that there just had to be an equatorial bulge, all
mathematics aside.
There is no centrifugal force at the precise point of the poles, because those
points are not in rotation. The force is greatest at the Equator, since it is
in fastest rotation.
The formula for determining centrifugal force is:
F=mv²/r
In other words, the force equals the mass of the rotating object times its
velocity squared divided by the radius. (For the purpose of this formula, the
"radius" of any point on the earth would not be its distance from the earth's
center, but its perpendicular distance from the earth's axis.)
Perhaps someone with enough mathematical skills (and running water) might be
able to determine the rate of change in centrifugal force per minute of latitude
in the vicinity of the equator. That should approximate the rate of change in
the equatorial bulge.
Lowell G. McManus
Leesville, Louisiana, USA
----- Original Message -----
From: "m06079" <barbaria_longa@...>
To: <BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, March 12, 2004 3:35 PM
Subject: [BoundaryPoint] where & how far are the farthest places continued
> ok i am back again already from both ecuador & sumatra
> with several chunks of good news
> on the
> how far is it
> front
>
> first & unexpectedly
> we appear to have reached some sort of an objective ceiling
> with the most recent instalment of this prolonged try
> aka message 13550
> to which this message is actually an addition
> but which now seems to resist further additions to its text via the
> normal reply function
>
> so our long years of trying & testing how high we can stack a
> yahoo thread appear to have finally reached a certain objective
> culmination & cosmic accolade
>
>
> second
> the actual progress report on the diametric trials
>
> the still uncorrobated but probably adequate peakware coords
> in integral degmin or approximate mile squares
> for all 4 of the candidate peaks of ecuador were first antipodized
> to sumatra & then matched with the actual topography there
>
> & all 4 of these diametric trials arrived rather uniformly in various
> parts of the coastal lowlands of riau province
> where any boost obtained would certainly be measurable in no
> more than single digits of meters
>
> so this discovery already flatly rules out candidate number 4
> antisana
>
>
> & third
> as to the only remaining question that needs to be answered
> before selecting the true winner from among cayambe & its 2
> taller rivals is the question of the bulge gradient
>
> regardless of all those spheroidal & ellipsoidal & geoidal maths
> which i confess i dont fully understand
> my intuition keeps telling me that the latitudes of polar flattening
> will be the more nearly spherical ones & the latitudes of
> equatorial bulging the less spherical ones
> & that the gradient of differentiation must be most gradual near
> the poles & steepest & indeed quite steep nearest the equator
>
> so those 477 meters per degree average of yours lowell might
> actually drop to 0 at the 90th degree but might approach 4777 or
> even 47777 meters or who knows what maximum in the degree
> or minute or second nearest the equator
>
> & having zigzagged all that thru my mind several times now in
> both directions
> i am imagining that your nod & blessing over it all yesterday
> implicitly included your agreement on this very question about
> the gradient
> & that it just wasnt worth talking about then
> so you didnt waste any breath on it
> & it continues to not be worth talking about now
>
> except
> i would like some explicit corroboration from at least someone
> who feels comfortable with the maths in the links to message
> 13550
> before continuing to acclaim cayambe the winner
> & proceeding to zero in on its coords & its elevation
> to obtain the final answer to & object of our quest
>
> thanx
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>