On Fri, 15 Feb 2008, John Rowland wrote:

Tom Anderson wrote:

Anyway, my proposal is for *all* heights to be measured as distance
from the centre of mass of the earth. SOLVED!

Why not measure heights from the centre of mass of the earth-moon system?
That would abolish the need for tide tables because the tide would be at a
fixed height...

SPLENDID IDEA.

although the land would go up and down.

A minor detail.

A slightly bigger 'although' is that it wouldn't work - sea level isn't
just a constant distance from the earth-moon barycentre. If it was,
there'd only be one tide a day, wouldn't there?

tom

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