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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2016
Photographic and Radar Observations of meteors reveal essential discrepancies from the simplest physical theory of meteors. The simplest theory (Whipple, 1943; Herlofson, 1948; Kascheev et al., 1967) proceeds from the following suppositions: (1) the meteoroid is a dense non-fragmenting body; (2) the sole ablation mechanism is evaporation; and (3) the whole energy transferred to a body by colliding air molecules is spent on evaporation. In addition, the simplest theory of radiowave reflection from meteor trails that does not take into account diffusive and thermodiffusive expansion of a meteor trail and change of the electron line density along the trail is used for the interpretation of the results of radar observations.