There is definitely an effect, you can see the water in your toilet rise and fall with the tide. Where does the effect end?

-- Ronnie's astrologer (@ .), May 03, 2000

Answers

Do you actually study the level of the water in your toilet tank? And I thought I had problems!

-- Lars (lars@indy.net), May 03, 2000.

Speaking as a woman (and I can because I am), my moods are not tied to the moon.

They are, however, tied to a cycle approximately the same length as the moon's, but I don't think I need to elaborate on that.

Depending on the season, they can also be directly tied to how bad the Rangers, Knicks, Jets and Mets are playing. When I lived in NYC, they were also tied somehow to the subways (i.e., how long I had to wait for a train, how many loonies did I encounter that day, does the a/c work in the summer (it worked very well in the winter), does the heat work in the winter (it worked very well in the summer), the particular scent du jour, etc.).

-- Patricia (PatriciaS@lasvegas.com), May 03, 2000.

It's called PMS honey. Care to investigate?

-- (blame@my.cycle), May 04, 2000.

It's called PMS..... or lack of self control.... I've known a lot of women, and without fail, everyone of them were " once a month bitches ", and not so pleasant the rest of the month...... or nice year 'round, and easy to get along with... just depends on the way they were raised by their Moms, and their own predisposition.

It's your choice... male or female... you can be selfcentered and an ass hole, or you can concider the other..... and don't give me the hormon trip, guys have them too, and that's no reason to kick the hell out of someone.

Rant off :-)

-- Netghost (ng@no.yr), May 04, 2000.

Ronnie,

If women's mood's are tied to the moon, why aren't men's (we're all people right)? Maybe because the change in women's moods is due to something other than the moon?

Just guessing here,

Frank

-- Someone (ChimingIn@twocents.cam), May 04, 2000.

If everyone would just take their vitamins, they wouldn't have so many mood swings.

-- VitaMan (VM@generous.nutrition), May 04, 2000.

And, of course, anyone who sees the water in their toilet bowl rise and fall with the tides has got serious differences with reality. Tides are a wave effect; if toilet bowls had tides, the water would shift toward one side of the bowl and away from the other. The water in a toilet bowl can't "rise" unless more water is physically added.

An extra credit trivia question on tides -- there are two tides per day. Assuming this is related to the moon (and it is), there is, of course, only one moon. Where does the second tide come from?

-- E.H. Porter (Just Wondering@About.it), May 04, 2000.

I don't normally get pulled into these things, but ... Mr. E.H. Porter your, "The water in a toilet bowl can't "rise" unless more water is physically added." scenario is not exactly, totally accurate. A change in air pressure can change water level - up or down respectively. Any takers?

Additionly, our high tide is someone elses low tide and vice versa. What did I win?

-- Mr. CryptoByte (cryptobyte@hotmail.com), May 04, 2000.

Uh, I get the feeling my (apparently lame) attempt at humor failed miserably. Oops.

Netghost, FWIW, I've known more than a few "men" in my time who seemed to be perpetually (excuse the expression) "on the rag"; so yeah, I'm well aware you all have hormones too :-)

-- Patricia (PatriciaS@lasvegas.com), May 04, 2000.

Tides are caused by two things: the gravitational attraction of bodies such as the Moon and Sun, and the effects of their rotation about the Earth, which is a consequence of that attraction. There are just two equations which govern these effects. The first is Newton's law of gravitation , where is the gravitational force between bodies with masses and , is the distance between them, and is the universal gravitational constant.

The second is the formula for the centrifugal force on a rotating object, , where is its mass, is the distance from the centre of rotation, and is the angular velocity.

Consider the Earth (mass , radius ) and Moon (mass , distance ):

Both orbit monthly about their centre of mass with angular velocity . The centre of mass is at a distance from the centre of the Earth, where , so .

The radial component of the gravitational force of the Moon on a mass at angle to the Earth-Moon line is .

The radial component of the centrifugal force is . Added to these there are the gravitational force due to the Earth, and the centrifugal force (where is the angular velocity of the diurnal rotation) due to the Earth's daily rotation about its own axis, but these are independent of . To combine these forces, we need to calculate the orbital angular velocity. The centrifugal forces on the Earth and Moon themselves must exactly balance the gravitational force between them, so , giving . Putting all this together, the total radial force is

, so the terms cancel and the only remaining angle-dependent term is symmetrical between the far and near sides (and less than times the Earth's own gravitational force.) The shape of the resulting equipotential surface is given by setting the integral with respect to height constant:. Then (using the binomial approximation and neglecting various small terms,) , so the equipotential surfaces are prolate ellipsoids. Filling in actual numbers we find that the maximum value of is about 0.35m for the Moon and 0.16m for the Sun. The sum of these is about 0.5m, which is the expected spring tidal range in deep oceans away from land.

-- Einstein (@ .), May 04, 2000.

Tides are caused by two things: the gravitational attraction of bodies such as the Moon and Sun, and the effects of their rotation about the Earth, which is a consequence of that attraction. There are just two equations which govern these effects. The first is Newton's law of gravitation , where is the gravitational force between bodies with masses and , is the distance between them, and is the universal gravitational constant.

The second is the formula for the centrifugal force on a rotating object, , where is its mass, is the distance from the centre of rotation, and is the angular velocity.

Consider the Earth (mass , radius ) and Moon (mass , distance ):

Both orbit monthly about their centre of mass with angular velocity . The centre of mass is at a distance from the centre of the Earth, where , so .

The radial component of the gravitational force of the Moon on a mass at angle to the Earth-Moon line is .

The radial component of the centrifugal force is . Added to these there are the gravitational force due to the Earth, and the centrifugal force (where is the angular velocity of the diurnal rotation) due to the Earth's daily rotation about its own axis, but these are independent of . To combine these forces, we need to calculate the orbital angular velocity. The centrifugal forces on the Earth and Moon themselves must exactly balance the gravitational force between them, so , giving . Putting all this together, the total radial force is

, so the terms cancel and the only remaining angle-dependent term is symmetrical between the far and near sides (and less than times the Earth's own gravitational force.) The shape of the resulting equipotential surface is given by setting the integral with respect to height constant:. Then (using the binomial approximation and neglecting various small terms,) , so the equipotential surfaces are prolate ellipsoids. Filling in actual numbers we find that the maximum value of is about 0.35m for the Moon and 0.16m for the Sun. The sum of these is about 0.5m, which is the expected spring tidal range in deep oceans away from land.

-- Einstein (had brain lapse) (@ .), May 04, 2000.

EH:

"And, of course, anyone who sees the water in their toilet bowl rise and fall with the tides has got serious differences with reality."

I don't know about that; it just depends on your regularity. When I was younger, twice a day was normal. As I get older, it rises and falls more often; especially on a beer night.

Best wishes,,,,,

Z

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), May 04, 2000.

I'd like to why women in groups, be they family - or groups in which they spend a great deal of time together, tend to cycle at the same time.

-- flora (***@__._), May 04, 2000.

Pheremones

-- Observer (observer@lots.to.observe), May 04, 2000.

Both of you Einsteins,

Next time how about a link or two instead of posting complex stuff that requires 50,000 acceses to some server in the U.K. before they load?

-- Klicker (klicker@keyclicks.con), May 04, 2000.

Cryptobyte -- to the best of my knowledge, fluids such as water are not compressable (at least where standard differences in air pressure are involved). Volume in constant.

--Einstein -- You're on the right track with all that gibbrish you posted. But, you only win the extra credit point if you can explain it in 25 words or less. Wanna give a try at summarizing it?

Z -- most accurate answer so far (barring --Einstein's translation). If you like to drink beer when the moon is out, a rise in the toilet level is most definitely to be expected.

-- E.H. Porter (Just Wondering@About.it), May 04, 2000.

EH - Is "differential gravitational forces" the answer you're looking for?

-- LunaC (LunaC@LunaC.com), May 05, 2000.

Luna -- no. Actually, to summarize what Einstein's post says. There are two tides. The first is caused by the gravitational attraction of the moon itself. The second, more or less on the opposite side of the planet, is caused by what is commonly known as centrifical force. This is generated because the earth rotates not around its own axis, but around the axis of the earth-moon system's center of mass. The moon is large enough and close enough that this makes the earth rotate somewhat off center, with the axis being displaced toward the moon. Since water on the far side of the earth is farther from the center of rotation, it tends to be displaced outwards.

-- E.H. Porter (Just Wondering@About.it), May 05, 2000.

EH - I think we're trying to say the same thing but using different terminologies. Is this< /a> what you're explaining?

-- LunaC (LunaC@LunaC.com), May 05, 2000.

ARGH! Let me try that again...(HTML can be SO cruel! lol)

Lunar Tides

-- LunaC (LunaC@LunaC.com), May 05, 2000.

We've eliminated whore moans, so the only thing left is: "Those who are pure at heart, and say their prayers at night....can become a wolfPERSON when the wolfbane grows and the moon is full and bright."

Anyone who watches the water in their toilet rise and fall with the tide has even less to occupy their time than I.

-- Anita (Anita_S3@hotmail.com), May 05, 2000.