OCR Text |
Show Scientists Wrong- in Blaming- Moon for Making Them Miss Predictions By DR. ERNEST W. BROWN, Yale University. The earth is a wobbly, unreliable, old celestial body. It is prone to gkid and change its shape. For ages it has been deceiving man. Scientists have blamed the moon for straying a little from her narrow path, making them miss in prediction of an eclipse by a second or two. It is all because the earth's rotation is variable. This skidding ot wobble is not due to outside forces, but to the earth itself. When the earth j changes its shape it changes its rate of spinning.. It swells and shrinks ' rhythmically, in periods of three or four years. j There is no cause for immediate alarm, however. For ages it has been up to the same trick, but has always managed fairly well to make a com-plete com-plete turn about every twenty-four hours. |