The Earth's Shifting Crust by Charles Hapgood - wire of information

CAMPBELL'S MECHANISM 349
wedge, which has the effect of multiplying the effect of an
applied force. This principle is usually given as follows:
The wedge is a pair of inclined planes united by their bases. In the
application of pressure to the head or butt end of the wedge, to
cause it to penetrate a resisting body, the applied force is to the
resistance as the thickness of the wedge is to its length (249:512).
This statement means that a wedge multiplies the splitting
power (or bursting stress) produced by an applied force in
the proportion of the length of the wedge to its thickness at
the butt end. Figure XV shows the application of this principle
to the earth. The formula for calculating the wedge
effect is presented at the extreme left, where P = pressure (as
thrust of the icecap transmitted to the crust), Q = the mutual
pressure between crust and bulge, or bursting stress, h = the
height (that is, the length) of the wedge, and b = the base or
butt end. The bursting stress equals the pressure applied to
the butt and multiplied by the ratio of the thickness of the
butt end to the length of the wedge. The length of the wedge,
in this case, is about 6,000 miles, and its thickness at the butt
end is 6.67 miles, so that the ratio is about 1,000:1, and the
quantity of the thrust of the icecap should consequently be
multiplied by 1,000; however, there are two wedges, one on
each side of the earth, and therefore the thrust is multiplied
only 500 times. Nevertheless, the significance of such a multi-
is self-evident.
plication of the effect of the icecap
It was not a simple matter to apply the principle of the
wedge to the earth. As in the case of the principle of the
parallelogram, the formula could not simply be copied from
a textbook; it had to be imaginatively applied. For example,
in the diagram P, or is pressure, shown exerted on the butt
end, like a sledge hammer hitting the butt end of a wedge to
split a log. But obviously, the thrust of the icecap is not, in
the first instance, applied in this way. It takes an act of the
to realize that in effect it amounts to the same
imagination
thing. The icecap is really pushing or pulling the crust
toward the equator on both sides of the earth, but the matter