Re: B5 and Sir Isaac

>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?
SNIP
>-joachim

	The effect, or something like it, is apparently real, but has
nothing to do with the tanker's gravity well.  There was a paper
published
last year by a mathematician on the tendency for 2 ships starting fairly
close together on a swell to move together, due to the action of the
waves.
The paper applied some sort of quantum equation bobbins to the
situation,
but that's so far outside my field that I'll shut up now!

Cheers,
Rob Paul

Rob Paul
NERC Institute of Virology 
Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3SR	  Tel. (01865) 512361
rpaul@worf.molbiol.ox.ac.uk
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  "Once again, villainy is rotting meat before the maggots of justice!"
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