Posted: Jan 02, 2015 4:36 pm
DavidMcC wrote:It must be, in spite of various authors and media claiming that the lunar bulge is one-sided.
What authors? The only person who I've seen claim this was you, in the case of a planet that was not rotating. You were of course wrong.
DavidMcC wrote:It would only be one-sided if the earth was not spinning on its axis, and did not have angular momentum to conserve.
This is incorrect, as explained very well in numerous places, in particular in the links kindly supplied by Pulsar and Veida.
DavidMcC wrote:As it is, the lunar pull tips up the plane of the bulge.
The earth's oceans are like a large gyroscope, tipping when interfered with.
Completely irrelevant. You can consider the compound effect from the centrifugal force (as experienced in a rotating frame) and the tidal force, this does not mean that the forces themselves are interdependent, or prevent discussing and understanding each effect in turn before combining them. You've got to learn to walk before you learn to run.