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OPPOSITE FACE MOON TIDAL BULGES ARE ELECTROSTATIC?
I've never found a truly satisfactory reason in all my readings why on the opposite side of the globe facing away from the moon or sun, are nearly the same as the tidal bulge facing them. The idea that the gravitational pull on the opposite side of the planet is canceled by the planet does not satisfy me. 'Push' gravity does not explain it effectively either. So I would like to present an idea which I suspect is original, if not crazy, though another may have thought of it first: the risen tide on the planet's opposite face away from the moon or sun is due to electrostatic charge.
As outlandish as this may appear at first blush, consider the following suggestions:
1. There is a magnetic field from pole to pole, if off axis, that permeates the globe. This magnetic field gives a negative charge value to the northern hemisphere and a counter positive charge to the southern hemisphere, with a more neutral reading around the equator, where the positive and negative meet.
2. Tides appear to be greater towards the poles and lesser near the equator, which cannot be accounted by for planetary spin, since that would yield the opposite effect. So another cause must be found, which leads to the idea that like charges repel, even in the planet's ocean mass.
3. If like charges for large water mass, such as the oceans, repel, then the waters on the northern hemisphere, as they rise in response to the moon's or sun's gravity, will create a bulge towards the gravitational attraction and one opposite to it. This bulge creates a large negatively charged mass which, being of like charge, will be repelled on the opposite side of the planet, so that there too the water will bulge outwards. So due to like charge repelling like charge, the opposite side of the planet's mass is now counter-bulging in response to the mass bulge on the side facing the moon or sun. On the equator, where the positive-negative charge more or less cancels, there is less tidal opposite face response, so that there is less bulge than where the electrostatic charge is greater. On the southern hemisphere, the positively charged water mass likewise creates its own opposite bulge, same as in the northern.
4. Why does the equatorial water not bulge as much as towards the poles? My best guess is that it is already bulging, because of the planet's spin, so that the additional gravitational pull of the moon or sun does not displace this water as much as in either hemisphere because the centrifugal force already displaces it. Thus, equatorial waters should experience lower tides. I would expect, by this reasoning, that the waters near the artic or antartic circles should rise the most, and then taper off gradually towards the poles, or flatten out towards the equator. Of course, this basic principle is further modified by ocean currents and land mass interferences.
So by this reasoning, the tidal bulges on the opposite side of the planet are actually electrostatic phenomena, where like charge repels like charge, even in the ocean waters. The same would be expected in the land mass, though to a much lower degree. In effect, the planet is pulsating with a gravitationally activated bulge which then triggers a like response on the opposite side of the planet through like electrostatic force repulsion. If it did not do so, we would wobble chaotically, which we do not.
Pardon my ignorance, but I am not familiar with the above mentioned electrostatic theory of tides from any known sources, but would love to find out this it is not so. To my thinking, this much better explains why the tides create a like bulge on the opposite side of the planet, than any theory now found in existing textbooks. Blame it on the hot sun, but I got this idea while hiking up and down the rocky peaks near Pena Springs, Anza Borrego desert, last weekend, watching out for snakes and other prickly things. New barbs won't hurt me, so all challenges are welcome!
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I have formally 'resigned' (tactical withdraw) from the Space-Talk boards; mine were many questions, ideas, but no real answers. Thanks. 04/10/04.
Disclaimer: Please note the ideas expressed here by me are cutting edge theory, very speculative in nature, and not physics as it is being currently taught. Caveat lector.
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Thread 
02/11/04 01:31
