2 One of the authors of the tidal theory, Harold Jeffreys, writes that first among the "several striking facts" which "still remain unexplained" by the tidal theory is "the smallness of the eccentricities of the orbits of the planets and satellites" (The Earth, 2nd ed. [1929], p. 48).
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satellites as captured asteroids which succeeded, after being captured, in achieving approximately circular orbits.
If such effects from contacts between two stars or from capture of a smaller body by a larger body are not incompatible with celestial mechanics, then the orbits resulting from worlds in collision should be regarded as in harmony with it, too.
The physical effects of retardation or reversal of the earth in its diurnal rotation are differently evaluated by various scientists. Some express the opinion that a total destruction of the earth and volatilization of its entire mass would follow such slowing down or stasis. They concede, however, that destruction of such dimensions would not occur if the earth continued to rotate and only its axis were tilted out of its position. This could be caused by the earth's passing through a robin-bobin
strong magnetic field at an angle to the earth's magnetic axis. A rotating steel top, when tilted by a magnet, continues to rotate. Theoretically, the terrestrial axis could be tilted for a certain length of time, and at any angle, and also in such a fashion that it would lie in the plane of the ecliptic.
In that case, one of the two hemispheres —the northern or the southern—would remain in prolonged day, the other, in prolonged night.
The tilting of the axis could produce the visual effect of a retrogressing or arrested sun; a greater tilting, a multiple day or night; and in the case of still greater tilting, a reversal of poles with east and west exchanging places; all this without a substantial disruption in the mechanical momentum of the rotation or revolution of the earth.
Other scientists maintain that a theoretical slowing down or even stoppage of the earth in its diurnal rotation would not by itself cause the destruction of the earth. All parts of the earth rotate with the same angular velocity, and if the theoretical stoppage or slowing down did not upset the equality of the angular velocity of the various parts of the solid globe, the earth would survive the slowing down, or stasis, or even a reversal of rotation. However, the fluid parts—the air and the water of the oceans—would certainly have their angular velocity disrupted, and hurricanes and tidal waves would sweep the earth. Civilizations would be destroyed, but not the globe.
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According to this explanation, the actual results of such a slowing down of the angular velocity of rotation would depend on the manner in which it occurred. If the application of an external medium, say a thick cloud of dust, acted equally on all parts of the surface of the globe, the globe would change its speed of rotation or might even cease rotating, and the energy of its rotation would be transferred to the cloud of dust; heat would develop as the result of the bombardment by the particles of dust striking the atmosphere and the ground. The earth would be buried under such a thick layer of dust that its mass would noticeably increase.
The cessation of the diurnal rotation could also be caused—and most efficiently—by the earth's passing through a strong magnetic field; eddy currents would be generated in the surface of the earth,3 which in turn would give rise to magnetic fields, and these, interacting with the external field, would slow down the earth or bring it to a rotational stasis.
It is possible to calculate the mass of a cloud of particles and also the strength of the magnetic field that would cause the earth to stop rotating or to slow down, say, to half its original rotational velocity. A rough calculation shows that if the mass of this cloud were equal to the mass of the earth and consisted of iron particles magnetized close to saturation, it would create a magnetic field strong enough to stop the rotation of the earth; if the magnetic field were half as strong it would slow the rotation of the earth to half its original velocity. However, if the cloud were electrically charged, the strength of its magnetic field would depend on its charge.
If the interaction with the magnetic field caused the earth to renew its spinning, it would almost certainly not be renewed at the same speed. If the magma inside the globe continued to rotate at a different angular velocity than the shell, it would tend to set the earth rotating slowly. In the tidal theory the origin of the earth's rotation is ascribed to the action of meteorites.
3 In this connection see the description of a sudden calamity in Numbers 16 : 45-49, in which thousands of Israelites roaming in the desert were "consumed as in a moment."
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If the angular velocity of the various strata or segments of the globe were disrupted by some stress, these strata or segments would shift, and heat would be created as the result of the friction. Cracks and rifts would appear, seas would erupt, land would submerge or rise in mountain ridges, with "the midmost of the earth trembling with terror and the upper layers of the earth falling away." 4
The stresses between the various strata that would result in all this might also convert some of the energy of rotation, not into heat, but into other forms of energy, including electrical. A discharge of great magnitude between the earth and the outer body (or cloud) could take place in this way.
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Thus celestial mechanics does not conflict with cosmic catastro-phism. I must admit, however, that in searching for the causes of the great upheavals of the past and in considering their effects, I became skeptical of the great theories concerning the celestial motions that were formulated when the historical facts described here were not known to science. The subject deserves to be discussed in detail and quantitatively. All that I would venture to say at this time and in this place is the following: The accepted celestial mechanics, notwithstanding the many calculations that have been carried out to many decimal places, or verified by celestial motions, stands only if the sun, the source of light, warmth, and other radiation produced by fusion and fission of atoms, is as a whole an electrically neutral body, and also if the planets, in their usual orbits, are neutral bodies.
Fundamental principles in celestial mechanics including the law of gravitation, must come into question if the sun possesses a charge sufficient to influence the planets in their orbits or the comets in theirs. In the Newtonian celestial mechanics, based on the theory of gravitation, electricity and magnetism play no role.
When physicists came upon the idea that the atom is built like a solar system, the atoms of various chemical elements differing in the mass of their suns (nuclei) and the number of their planets (electrons), the notion was looked upon with much favor. But it was stressed that "an atom differs from the solar system by the fact that * See p. 74.