'Ere, where's the elephant then?

[VectraMan]

If you go round a roundabout with a helium balloon on a string, will it go out or in?

I put helium in my tyres as that makes the car lighter, and therefore can go round roundabouts faster.

[SpontaneousOrder]

That's due to gravity of other celestial bodies, which I don't think is what he was getting at

Sort of, it's mainly the moon, the sun has the tiniest effect. The moon's gravity causes the tide whose bulge causes the sphere's energy to dissipate through friction. This slowing down also decreases the gravitional pull of the earth on the moon so the moon is also slowly drifting away. When an earth day is as long as a lunar month (see note) there will be an equilibrium and no more tides, but that is billions of years away.

Note:- this is presently observerable, the ancients wisely named Monday after the moon as it seems to last as long as a lunar month.

So when you say 'sort of' you mean 'yes - absolutely'.

[GlenW]

I'm not sure that flies' arseholes are located to the rear.

They're definitely not further forward than their head though.

[Gibbon]

So when you say 'sort of' you mean 'yes - absolutely'.

No, because gravity per se wouldn't do it if the earth had a fully solid crust i.e. there would be no tidal drag, hence sort of.

[SpontaneousOrder]

No, because gravity per se wouldn't do it if the earth had a fully solid crust

Not true. Tidal forces don't actually refer to tides - they just cause tides where the body being acted on isn't solid.
Two ball bearings in similar orbits in space would experience the same kind of tidal acceleration.

Whether actual tides increase the effect or not I'm not sure (although I would expect that it would have no positive effect - if anything a negative one). So I'm going to upgrade my 'sort of' to a 'mostly' at the very least :P