12/30   Does anyone know the precession rate of Earth's equator?
                \_ Yes, someone knows the precession rate of Earth's equator.
        \_ Does the equator precess differently from the rest of the earth?
           \_ How about the nutation rate?
                \_ The nutrition rate is much higher.
        \_ one full cycle is about 26000 years.
           \_ so in 26000 years, we'll be off by one year or one day?
        \_ Why does it happen?  I thought angular momentum needs to be
           conserved.
           \_ Only in the absence of torque.  Torque could arise from outside
              sources, or because the Earth's axis of rotation is not along
              an inertial axis.
           \_ something to do with the moon i bet
                \_ The moon is drifting away ~1.5 inches a year.  When it
                   finally "goes away" and wanders off into space, the Earth
                   is going to slip from that nice 23.5 degree angle and spin
                   every which way.  Fortunately this won't matter to any of
                   us since long before that happens, we'll all be dead from
                   the End of Days, the Rapture, and Y2k bugs in nuclear and
                   other critical systems.