• - ON -THE TIDES.... TO THE EDITOR OF THE
SPECTATOR.
• Pilt••n, January 7th, 1833, Sin;--Tri My corner letter, which treated upon this su16act, I thought I had sufficiently pi oved that, ',rakes Mn-. WOOD.. .could annthilide the prover uf the cartlere att. a- tion, his theory could not convert a fluid sphere into a predate spheroid, -e this pocer woehl neceesarily retard those particles which were i :,c ,noon and aceelm ate the .e Vint were farthust from the moon ; and I leave ic . • 3 eve reale..s tt decide, whether he has invalidated this argu • anent by rd.•1•Itti; .lte ninth revolve in a circle round the moon instead of pro- ceeding in ,,,;e;or bee. 2. Ir. Worm:, at all events, has Mien esnecial care to keep-the-Joe (, e'' 'le earth's attvecsioa out of sight ; and, so far, taat part of my arge meet iii. •••• unan,a. era. Wyatt cove.; is nistakeji in sunposing that his theory and NEI% Tox's are sham' a . it is. Ne-..-eo:e must have ricr I the rrisiagenl.;.-...1 to account same phertnify-tol in tem direr ent wars; lbr NEWTOX expressly declare., that it re(' Ores a. lott:ii trete to piedn re the gre-atest effect on tine tides, while Mr. Worms' ernaey (which he bee bor.oweri, not from Nsesv-me but from FERCUSO:.) caidently revires 180, of lonaiterle. The simplest and best way to form &just rarie:.on of the true cause o. tIrs pheaornenon is first of all to suppose a s:o"n.,ae.y earth acted mine lw ere sun and moon's attrac- tion, and ;ler we have asentaived whet c...:ect would ne produced npoo -",the tides la these borlic,, see whether the k not fictitious) niotion- i, ule 4artlecouldpossibly produce any Sr.. s 74.1 al.e.eloa. As 1 before stater!, Sir Isase.tNnx. vwy serrpoeed that the power of the sun or moortaatteaction diminished the grasi.e of the waters pa.der.ea',II all the way from die point whe e it Was on the hoeiner to the point where it was ve:tical, and which, of course, contained a biemith cf tar' of lungituee. Herce it necessarily followed e Ic :r; of ;•,.6.,:ss.,.e efle that the -waters, in thcr-e parts that had leastamaity, were lif.ed up by the downward -premise of iboae that had most gravity, until the aagregate of every colem a et. water,! within DP of each other, was precieely the same. I repeat
:then, that, aeco.ding to the Newtonian theory, the power of the sun's
attraction, at the earth's surface' had been fifty times greater than that of the moon's, the solar tides would have been fifty times greater than the lunar- tides, instead of being much less ; and that the only effect that could possiblybe occasioned by the power of the moon's attraction being greater on one side of the earth than on the other, would be that the difference of gravity between the sun and moon would be greater on one side than on the other, and conse- quently, on that side of the earth that was farthest from the moon, the neap tides would be higher and the spring tides lower than they would be on the oppo- site side. This, Sir, is the effect that would be produced on the tides if the earth were stationary e and I cannot iinegine how the earth's motion a-ound the- m) (not the moon) can make any sensible alteration in it. Again' Mr. WOODS does not appear to be aware of it, hut as he has under- takes to discuss tins question, he ought to know that the earth fles. not revolve- round the Moon, -but rotind the sun; and that the only effect that is produced by the Moon's attraction is to convert a regular and neatly circular cin ve into a. slight r.igrag, which is so trifling, that it cannot he represen'ed 7-,.;u.• paper ; and hence it follows, that if Mr. Woons's Ferguson iun, theory of the tides had been the true one, the times of •high and low water would inecitebly have fol- lowed the motion of the sun, and not that of the moon. 3Ir. Woons may possibly entertain a very high opinion of his own attain- ments, and a very mean one of mine ; but 1 must take the liberty of observing- that, if he had condescended to read what I have written in my pamphlet on the Tides, and especially the note which was referred to in your first notice of my work, he would have saved both himself and me a great deal of unneces-
sary discussion. - Lam, Sir, &e. &c.
WALTER FORMAN.
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