  We present a new homogeneous sample of 32 spectroscopic binary orbits in the
young (~ 150 Myr) main-sequence open cluster M35. The distribution of orbital
eccentricity vs. orbital period (e-log(P)) displays a distinct transition from
eccentric to circular orbits at an orbital period of ~ 10 days. The transition
is due to tidal circularization of the closest binaries. The population of
binary orbits in M35 provide a significantly improved constraint on the rate of
tidal circularization at an age of 150 Myr. We propose a new and more robust
diagnostic of the degree of tidal circularization in a binary population based
on a functional fit to the e-log(P) distribution. We call this new measure the
tidal circularization period. The tidal circularization period of a binary
population represents the orbital period at which a binary orbit with the most
frequent initial orbital eccentricity circularizes (defined as e = 0.01) at the
age of the population. We determine the tidal circularizationperiod for M35 as
well as for 7 additional binary populations spanning ages from the pre
main-sequence (~ 3 Myr) to late main-sequence (~ 10 Gyr), and use Monte Carlo
error analysis to determine the uncertainties on the derived circularization
periods. We conclude that current theories of tidal circularization cannot
account for the distribution of tidal circularization periods with population
age.
