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Speaking in round numbers, the revolutional moment of momentum of Jupiter is about thirty times as great as the rotational moment of momentum at present possessed by the sun. I do not know that there is anything impossible in the supposition that the sun might, by an augmented volume and an augmented velocity of rotation, contain many times the moment of momentum that it has at this moment.
Jupiter from his rotation has not the fifty thousandth part of his revolutional moment of momentum, while the earth's rotational share is not one ten thousandth part of that of Jupiter, and therefore is without importance in the general aspect of the system. The revolution of the earth contributes about one eight hundredth part of that of Jupiter.
These facts as here stated will suffice for us to make a forecast of the utmost the tides can effect in the future transformation of our system. We have already explained that the general tendency of tidal friction is to augment revolutional moment of momentum at the expense of rotational.
I represent the whole moment of momentum of our system by £1,000,000,000, the bulk of which is composed of the revolutional moments of momentum of the great planets, and the rotational moment of momentum of the sun.
We may omit the satellites for the present, while such unsubstantial bodies as comets and such small bodies as meteors need not concern us. The present investment of the moment of momentum of our system is to be found by multiplying the mass of each planet by the square root of its distance from the sun; these products for all the several planets form the total revolutional moment of momentum.
The total moment of momentum of the planets by rotation, when multiplied by a constant factor, and added to the revolutional moment of momentum, will remain absolutely constant. It may be interesting to note the present disposition of this vast inheritance among the different bodies of our system.
Let us restate the matter of the earth and moon in the light which the argument with respect to Jupiter has given us. At present the rotational moment of momentum of the earth is about a fifth part of the revolutional moment of momentum of the moon.
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