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Wiley InterScience | ||||||||||
  Astronomy & GeophysicsVolume 44 Issue 2, Pages 2.22 - 2.27 Published Online: 25 Mar 2003 © 2010 Royal Astronomical Society Published on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society
Abstract | References | Full Text: HTML, PDF (Size: 240K) | Related Articles | Citation Tracking  Harold Jeffreys Lecture 2002 Historical eclipses and Earth's rotation Acknowledgement. Most of my research on Earth's past rotation has been undertaken in collaboratiion with Dr Leslie V Morrison. I am geatly indebted to him. Ima also grateful to the late Prof. S Keith Runcorn, FRS for introducing me to what hads proved such a fascinating and rewarding topic. Copyright Royal Astronomical Society ABSTRACTF Richard Stephenson took a long view of Earth's rotation history in the 2002 Harold Jeffreys Lecture in October. Abstract
The Earth, in its diurnal rotation, acts as a remarkably accurate timekeeper. However, small variations in the length of the day occur at the millisecond level. Historical eclipse observations, recorded by various ancient and medieval cultures, enable changes in the Earth's spin rate to be monitored with fair precision as far back as around 700 BC. Although lunar and solar tides are the main causes of long-term changes in the length of the day, the early observations reveal that non-tidal mechanisms are also important. In this paper I review both the historical development of this subject and recent advances. | 
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