Astronomy and Sandy

"A Langrangian is not a physical thing;it is a mathematical thing - a
kind of differential equation to be exact.But physics and maths are so
closely connected these days that it is hard to separate the numbers
from the things they describe.In fact,a month after [Philip]
Morrison's remarks,Nobel Prize winner Burton Richter of the Stanford
Linear Accelerator Center said something that eerily echoed it: "
Mathematics is a language that is used to describe nature" he said
"But the theorists are beginning to think it is nature.To them the
Langrangians are the reality " Discover Magazine ,1983

Long before Langrangians there was the Ra/Dec framework on which
Newton built his absolute/relative time,space and motion in order to
make it appear that the predictable trajectories of objects at a
human level match planetary orbital motion by vaguely pointing in the
direction of the predictive convenience of Ra/Dec which in itself is
an extension of the 24 hour AM/PM cycle and the Lat/Long system.Now
that the error is out in the open and the devastation it caused in the
huge area of science where planetary dynamics and terrestrial effects
meet,it remains only upon the speed of recovery for all concerned as
the highest profile organization has at least come to its senses
without being transparent about it.

Over the last few days people on the East Coast of the USA have become
concerned for the tides as the additional component added by the
hurricane caused severe damage and intruded into the normal civil
activities demonstrating that men wait for nature and cannot control
it.The tides are perhaps the most sensitive to astronomical inputs
whether it is the daily and annual motions of the Earth or the lunar
inputs which alter degrees on tidal amplitude.The empiricists came
close in the late 17th century to making great strides and especially
in the letter of Wallis to Boyle which is so full of topics that it
made the first addition of the Royal Society transactions.Barely a few
decades later they adopted Ra/Dec and everything shut down and
remained that way until the error was spotted recently and now studies
can begin once again.