Problem set 1: PH 217: Due on 27 August 2019

1. Why are total solar eclipses rare Using simple geometry of solar eclipse show that the
width of the totality belt on Earth is roughly 100 km. This shows that only a small portion of
the Earth can witness a total solar eclipse, which is why they are rare from any given location.
(Use the following figure and use the idea of similar triangles) (r, E are radius of the totality
belt and radius of Earth, M, m are radius of the Moon and distance of Moon from the Earth,
S, s are the radius of the Sun and distance of the Sun from the Earth) [3]

Figure 1:

2. Saros Cycle of eclipses: Eclipses do not occur on all full and new moons. For an eclipse
to occur, a few conditions need to be fulfilled, and these conditions have cycles with different
periods. A Synodic month is defined as the time between two new moons. It is α = 29.530588853
days. The Draconic month is the period of time of the moon to return to the same node. It is
β = 27.212220817 days. Actually we need the Moon to be any one of these nodes, so half of β
is the appropriate period.These two cycles have to coincide in order for an eclipse to happen.
The best way to find a smallest common multiple (within a given accuracy) is to look for the
continued fraction expansion of α/(β/2) = 2.170391682. Use an online continued fraction calcu-
lator (such as http://www.maths.surrey.ac.uk/hosted-sites/R.Knott/Fibonacci/cfCALC.html)
to show that to a good accuracy 2.170391682 = [2; 5, 1, 6, 1, 1, 1, 1]. Show that this implies 223
Draconic month≈ 242 Synodic months= 6585.32 days≈ 18 years, 11 days. This is known as the
Saros cycle of eclipses, which was known to the Babylonians. [2]

3. Precession of equinoxes The Earth’s rotation axis precesses with a period of 25800 years.
This occurs because of torques produced by the Sun and the Moon on the equatorial bulge of
the Earth.
(a) Estimate the equatorial bulge mass of the Earth due to rotation, from the difference of mass
between an oblate Earth (with equatorial radius Req ≈ 6371 km) and a sphere of mean radius
(Rmean ≈ 6353 km).
(b) Assume the bulge mass to be distributed in the form of a ring. Earth’s rotational frequency
(2π/24 hr) is roughly 27 times that of the Moon’s orbital frequency around the Earth. From

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 Figure 2:

the point of view of the Moon, the bulge mass can be thought of being distributed uniformly
around the equator. For simplicity, let us assume this to be divided into two opposite locations
on Earth’s equator, each with mass mbulge /2. If the tilt of the Earth’s rotation axis is θ, then
show that the tidal torque on the bulge mass due to the Moon is, (with d as the distance of the
Moon from the centre of the Earth)
GMM (mbulge /2)(2RE cos θ)
τ= × RE sin θ (1)
d3

(c) This is the maximum value of torque. As the Moon revolves around the Earth, twice in its
orbit, it will exert zero torque, when the Moon is 1/4 of its orbit away, because the forces on the
bulge mass spots will cancel out and there will not be any tidal acceleration. So, when averaged
out, the tidal torque will roughly be half of this value. Further, when one spreads the bulge
mass around the Earth in a ring, instead of two spots, the average tidal force turns out to be
another factor of 2 less. Finally, the tidal torque is,
2
1 GMM mbulge RE
hτ i ≈ 3
cos θ sin θ (2)
4 d
This torque is pointed in a direction perpendicular to the Earth’s angular momentum and the
radius vector joining Earth and the Moon, and therefore lies in a plane perpendicular to both.
In this plane, the angular momentum of the Earth has a component L sin θ. The torque will
slowly change this angular momentum, with a rate, (assume L = Iω, with I ≈ (2/5)ME RE 2,

and ω = 2π/T )
hτ i
φ̇ = . (3)
L sin θ
There is a similar effect from the Sun. Adding the two, one has,
5 GMM mbulge h M  dM 3 i
φ̇ = (cos θ)T 1 + (4)
16π d3 ME MM dS

this gives φ̇ ≈ 6.6 × 10−12 rad s−1 , and the period of precession is T ≈ 2π/φ̇ ≈ 30000 yr, close

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to the exact value of 25800 yr. [3+3+4]

4. Water from comets? It is believed that comets supplied the water on Earth. Let us
examine this idea in some detail in this exercise. [3+2+5] (A more sophisticated version of this
exercise was published by C. Chyba in Nature in 1987.)

(a) Consider a spherical comet of radius 4 km. With an average cometary mass density of 0.6
g cm−3 , its mass is 1.6 × 1017 g. Estimate its kinetic energy when it comes near the Earth-Moon
system. For a rough estimate, estimate the KE assuming a circular orbit at Earth’s distance.
Suppose one such comet hits the Moon surface. The impact will heat the lunar rocks to about
3500 K and vapourise them. Suppose it creates a crater of depth 10 km. Assume that lunar
rocks are made of silicates, with molecular weight ∼ 30 times the mass of a proton, and with
mean solid density ∼ 2 g cm−3 , then (ignoring the latent heat of melting and vaporising the
rocks) equate the kinetic energy of the comet to the total thermal energy of the vapourized
rocks, and estimate the radius of the cylindrically shaped crater that the comet creates when it
strikes the Moon (roughly 40 km).

(b) There are about 10 such craters of this size on Moon, in the relatively clean mare regions,
formed during the past 3 billion years or so. The corresponding number of impacts on Earth
would be larger, firstly because of its bigger size and secondly its gravity. Ignoring gravity,
estimate the ratio of number of impacts on Earth to that on Moon by comets of radius 4 km.

(c) But there are more number of smaller comets than big ones! Comets have a mass dis-
tribution that says that the number dN of comets with mass between m and m + dm is given
by dN −3
dm ∝ m . The radii of the comets range between ∼ 0.2–4 km. From these two ingredients,
and the estimate of cometary impacts of size 4 km on Earth, estimate the total mass of comets
that impacted the Earth. If the comets mostly contained frozen ice, compare the mass of water
with the ocean water on earth (∼ 1.4 × 1024 g)

5. What is the altitude of the Sun along the meridian on the summer solstice for an observer
at a latitude of 40◦ N? What is the maximum altitude of the Sun at the same latitude on the
winter solstice? (Hint: find the declination of the Sun on these two days, then use the relation
between latitude, altitude (along meridian) and the declination.) [2]

6. The absolute magnitude of sirius (its apparent magnitude at a distance of 10 pc) is +1.42 in
the Visual band, and that of the Sun is +4.83. Find the ratio of the luminosities of these two
stars. [1]

7. Estimate the angular resolution that we can achieve with human eye, assuming a pupil di-

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ameter of 0.5 cm and wavelength of green light ∼ 0.5 µm. Express this in arc minutes. Estimate
the angular resolution in arc seconds of the Hubble Space Telescope, with aperture diameter 2.4
m at the same wavelength. [2]