Re: B5 and Sir Isaac

On Thu, 20 Mar 1997, Joachim Heck - SunSoft wrote:

> sprayform.dev@netwales.co.uk writes:
> 
> @:) Any large mass has a gravitational pull ; since this is observable
> @:) when a small pleasure boat comes within a few metres of a super
> @:) tanker at bearth and is pulled towards the hull (both ships
> @:) stationary) It is totally fesible that the 1/3 g of C&C is due to
> @:) the MASS of B5 as a whole on the outlying section that does not
> @:) rotate.
> 
>   Having just spent some time reading the Urban Legends home page
> (www.urbanlegends.com) I am in a skeptical mood.  This sounds pretty
> implausible.	My understanding was that the gravitational fields of
> objects smaller than large mountains were impossible to measure - the
> tanker experiment would appear to supply an excellent measurement
> technique.  Anybody have any supporting facts on this issue?
> 
I would suspect it has more to do with the greater mass of a 20,000 ton 
tanker not moving musch compared to a small boat such that a slight 
current or errant wave will push the boat some distance before the ship 
even begins to move.  Otherwise ships passing in canals would always
have 
problems getting stuck to each other and those barges on the Mississippi

would never float away from the pack.

--Binhan