[time-nuts] Q/noise of Earth as an oscillator

[Chris Caudle]

On Wed, July 27, 2016 10:33 am, Chris Caudle wrote:
> Does that imply that this value is not constant:
>>> And if you take the classic definition
>>> Q = 2 pi * total energy /energy lost per cycle
>>> then it would seem earth has a Q factor.

After re-reading "The Story of Q" I agree that Q of a rotating body could
be non-constant, but also consistent with the original definition of Q as
the ratio of reactance to resistance of an inductor, which of course would
vary almost completely linearly over a wide frequency range where the
resistive dissipation was not frequency dependent (i.e. where skin effect
was negligible).

Perhaps a more useful question is whether that is still a useful
definition compared to how the term is more typically used now to refer to
resonance bandwidth.

-- 
Chris Caudle