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From: hammond@petrus.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: Re: A couple of old Physics puzzles
Message-ID: <245@petrus.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 2-Jan-85 09:33:49 EST
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Posted: Wed Jan  2 09:33:49 1985
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> 
> 	1)Why are the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans at different
> levels?

The earth rotates and the water piles up on the edge of the Americas
on one side and pulls away on the other.  The gaps at the Horn and the
Artic ocean aren't close enough to Panama to reduce the difference completely,
so an imbalance persists (because of the earths rotation).  If the
earth stopped rotating, I would expect the ocean levels to equalize.

If I remember properly, the difference is more like 10 feet than 1 foot
in order of magnitude (i.e. 4 to 13 foot differences).

The tides and local weather conditions may cause fluctuations, but I
believe the earths rotation is the fundamental cause of the difference.

Rich Hammond (ihnp4!bellcore!hammond)