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The Earth and Mathematics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2016

K. E. Bullen*
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Sydney, Australia

Extract

In Classroom Notes No. 178 (Math. Gazette, 1968, pp. 376-380), a problem is set and formally solved on a body falling through a tube in the interior of the Earth. One can condone taking the ideal conditions of a frictionless tube and even overlook the fact that no such tube could withstand the stresses present in the Earth below some 30 kilometres depth. But when, as in this Note, it is further assumed (without even reference to any assumption) that g is proportional to r, the calculations, whatever mathematical interest they might have, cannot be regarded as having any relation whatever to the planet Earth.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Mathematical Association 1970

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References

1. Tisserand, F., Traité de Méchanique Céleste, Vol. II, p. 244, 1891.Google Scholar
2. Bullen, K. E., Introduction to the Theory of Seismology, Cambridge University Press, 1965.Google Scholar