The Scientific Papers of Sir George Darwin
Tidal Friction and Cosmogony

This volume of collected papers, published in 1908, covers tidal friction and cosmogony.

George Howard Darwin (Author)

9781108004435, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 20 July 2009

540 pages, 12 b/w illus.
24.4 x 2.8 x 17 cm, 0.85 kg

Sir George Darwin (1845–1912) was the second son and fifth child of Charles Darwin. After studying mathematics at Cambridge he read for the Bar, but soon returned to science and to Cambridge, where in 1883 he was appointed Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy. His family home is now the location of Darwin College. His work was concerned primarily with the effect of the sun and moon on tidal forces on Earth, and with the theoretical cosmogony which evolved from practical observation: he formulated the fission theory of the formation of the moon (that the moon was formed from still-molten matter pulled away from the Earth by solar tides). He also developed a theory of evolution for the Sun–Earth–Moon system based on mathematical analysis in geophysical theory. This volume of his collected papers covers tidal friction and cosmogony.

Preface
1. On the bodily tides of viscous and semi-elastic spheroids, and on the ocean tides upon a yielding nucleus
2. Note on Thomson's theory of the tides of an elastic sphere
3. On the precession of a viscous spheroid, and on the remote history of the Earth
4. Problems connected with the tides of a viscous spheroid
5. The determination of the secular effects of tidal friction by a graphical method
6. On the secular changes in the elements of the orbit of a satellite revolving around a tidally distorted planet
7. On the analytical expressions which give the history of a fluid planet of small viscosity, attended by a single satellite
8. On the tidal friction of a planet, attended by several satellites, and on the evolution of the solar system
9. On the stresses caused in the interior of the Earth by the weight of continents and mountains
Index.

Subject Areas: Solar system: the Sun & planets [PGS]