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The Love numbers (h, k, and l) are dimensionless parameters that measure the rigidity of a planetary body or other gravitating object, and the susceptibility of its shape to change in response to an external tidal potential.
In 1909, Augustus Edward Hough Love introduced the values h and k which characterize the overall elastic response of the Earth to the tides—Earth tides or body tides.[1] Later, in 1912, Toshi Shida added a third Love number, l, which was needed to obtain a complete overall description of the solid Earth's response to the tides.[2]
- ^ Love Augustus Edward Hough. The yielding of the earth to disturbing forces 82 Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A 1909 http://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.1909.0008
- ^ TOSHI SHIDA, On the Body Tides of the Earth, A Proposal for the International Geodetic Association, Proceedings of the Tokyo Mathematico-Physical Society. 2nd Series, 1911-1912, Volume 6, Issue 16, Pages 242-258, ISSN 2185-2693, doi:10.11429/ptmps1907.6.16_242.