Abstract
IN these two papers the investigation is continued of the physical results which follow from the theory that the mass of the earth is either viscous or imperfectly elastic. In the first paper of the series (which was read before the Royal Society on May 23, 1878, and of which an account appeared in NATURE, vol. xviii. p. 265) the theory of the bodily tides of such a spheroid was considered. In that paper it was shown that the bodily tides would lag, and that this lagging would produce an acceleration of the time of high water of the oceanic tides relatively to the nucleus. The author's attention was directed to the tidal reports of the British Association by Sir W. Thomson, and he has tried to find whether the tidal observations give any indications of a yielding of the earth's mass. The theory of the semi-diurnal and diurnal oceanic tides is so imperfect that it is impossible to say whether or not high water takes place earlier than it would do on a rigid nucleus; the long-period tides are those from which alone any indications are to be expected.
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References
An account of two papers, "On the Precession of a Viscous Spheroid, and on the Remote History of the Earth," and "Problems Connected with the Tides of a Viscous Spheroid," by G. H. Darwin, read before the Royal Society on December 19, 1878.
Memorie della Società degli Spettroscopisti Italiani, 1878, vol. vii.
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On a Theory of the Viscosity of the Earth's Mass 1 . Nature 19, 292–293 (1879). https://doi.org/10.1038/019292b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/019292b0