Remember, it is not the mere presence of the tide which produces friction. It is the action of the tide in rising and in falling which accomplishes the work. If, therefore, the moon moved so that it was always high tide at the same place, the tides could produce no further effect. The spot where the tide is high on the moon is the spot which is toward the earth. It hence follows that the action of the tides will cease when the moon constantly directs the same face to the earth. The moon has thus at length gained a haven of rest from a tidal point of view. No doubt the moon has a high tide and it has a low tide, but those tides no longer ebb and flow: the moon has succumbed to the incessant action of friction, and has assumed the only attitude which can relieve it from incessant disturbance.
For many centuries it had been an enigma to astronomers why the moon should always turn the same face to the earth. It could be shown that there were many million chances to one in favor of this being due to some physical cause. The ordinary theory of gravitation failed to explain the cause. Every one had noticed this phenomenon. Yet the explanation was never given till lately. It was Helmholtz who showed that this was a consequence of ancient tides, and this simple and most satisfactory explanation had been universally accepted. The constant face of the moon is a living testimony to the power of the tides. What tides have accomplished on the moon is an earnest of what tides will accomplish on the earth.
In the great conflict of the tides the earth has already conquered the moon, and forced the moon to render perpetual homage as a token of submission. Remember, however, that the earth is large and the moon is small. Yet, small though the moon is, it gallantly struggles on. "You have forced me," cries the moon to the earth, "to abandon the rotation with which I was originally endowed; you have compelled me to rotate in the manner you have dictated. I will have my revenge. It is true I am weak, but I am unrelenting; day by day I am exhausting you by the tides with which I make you throb. The time will assuredly come, though it may not be for millions of years, when you shall be forced to make a compromise. When that compromise is made the turmoils of the tides will cease; our mutual movements will be adjusted. With equal dignity we shall each rotate around the other; with equal dignity we shall each constantly bend the same face to the other."
There is another point to be considered. We must not forget that there is a sun in the heavens as well as a moon. The sun also produces tides in the earth. Those tides were much smaller than the lunar tides, so that we could afford to neglect them. But we have seen that the lunar tides will gradually decrease to nothing. It behooves us then to consider what the solar tides can effect which shall be worthy of our attention. In a lecture which I gave here some years ago, I made allusion to the discovery of the satellites of Mars.
