IT'S THE WHITE DEATH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

chas · Post by **chas** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 8:38 am

djm wrote: Did you say you saw your good friend flying low?
Flying low, blinded by snow.
- Hoyt Axton

Oh, man, I love that song, though I've never heard Hoyt sing it himself. Steppenwolf's version is an absolute tearjerker; John Kay was pretty close to Hoyt and to the subject of the song.

The rumors of a devastating storm in the Nation's Capital were greatly exaggerated. A couple inches of very wet snow are all we got.

Redwolf · Post by **Redwolf** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 8:39 am

Flyingcursor wrote:

redwolf wrote: Forget "official." Why the U.S. chose to make Midwinter the official "start" of winter is anybody's guess. In the rest of the world, winter starts in November. Summer starts in May. And so on. It's much more realistic.

It's based on the solstice and equanox, not on climate patterns.

Dec 21 (winter solstace) - March 21 (vernal equinox) = Winter.
March 21 - June 21 (Summer solstice) = Spring.
June 21 - Sept. 21 (autumnal equinox) = Summer.
Sept 21 - Dec 21 = Autumn.

I wasn't aware that the rest of the world did it differently. Especially since it's spring in the southern hemisphere. I don't think they'd call it winter.

I know what it's based on. In other places, though, the solstices and equinoxes represent the MIDPOINT of the seasons, not the beginning of the seasons. The shortest day of the year is Midwinter. The longest day of the year is Midsummer.

In the Southern hemisphere, obviously, the seasons themselves are reversed, but the concept is the same.

Redwolf

Flyingcursor · Post by **Flyingcursor** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 9:09 am

Oh. I see. So December 21 is Midwinter or midsummer in the southern hemisphere. Well. That does make more sense.

djm · Post by **djm** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 9:44 am

Okay, here's one for you equinoxperts:

The earth's axis is on a tilt to the plane of its orbit of the sun, thus causing the seasons north and south to be reversed. So, the thing is, as I understand it, that the axis does not rotate away from the sun during its orbit, thus the equinoxes. The axis always points in the same direction. What I am curious about is where does it point to? e.g. where does the north pole point to, where does the south pole point to? Can these places really be the same points throughout the the whole year? Extra points to anyone who can explain this so that even I can understand.

djm

Tyler · Post by **Tyler** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 9:46 am

djm wrote:where does the north pole point to, where does the south pole point to?

The north pole points north, and the south pole points south....duh!

Extra points to anyone who can explain this so that even I can understand.

djm

Simple enough for ya?

chas · Post by **chas** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 11:17 am

djm wrote:The axis always points in the same direction. What I am curious about is where does it point to? e.g. where does the north pole point to, where does the south pole point to? Can these places really be the same points throughout the the whole year? Extra points to anyone who can explain this so that even I can understand.

The north pole points toward the north star (Polaris). There's nothing magical about it, that's just where the axis of the earth points. In a few million years, as we change our place in the galaxy, another star will probably be the north star. There may be an equivalent star in the galaxy that the south pole points to; I've never been to the southern hemisphere.

Denny · Post by **Denny** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 11:47 am

Nope...

djm · Post by **djm** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 10:24 pm

Okay, maybe I'm not wording this well. Imagine your typical "this is astronomy" picture for grade school kids. There's Mr. Sun in the middle; a big ball. There's the Earth drawn as a smaller ball on a narrow elipse indicating the Earth's orbit around Mr. Sun.

So let's say, for illustration purposes, that the Earth is going from left to right in a counter-clockwise direction following that line that represents its orbit. Now picture the Earth's axis drawn as a straight line through the ball that represents the Earth. Notice that the top end of the Earth's axis line is drawn from the upper left to the lower right.

What confuses me is that no matter where Earth is on its orbital path, that axis will always point from the upper left to the lower right. When Earth is all the way to the left of the orbit, the southern hemisphere gets more sun and heats up to experience their summer. When the Earth is way over on the right of the orbit the northern hemisphere gets more sun, heats up, and has their summer. When the Earth is in the middle of the orbit, whether near side or far side of the Sun, the axis is still pointing upper left to lower right, so the sun seems to cross the Earth's equator at an angle, a point in its orbit called the equinox.

So that's the weird thing. How come the Earth's axis is always pointing from the upper left to the lower right, even at the equinox points? Why doesn't it swing away from the Sun in an even movement? What keeps pulling the top end of the axis to the upper left?

djm

missy · Post by **missy** » Sat Dec 10, 2005 7:09 am

djm wrote:

So that's the weird thing. How come the Earth's axis is always pointing from the upper left to the lower right, even at the equinox points? Why doesn't it swing away from the Sun in an even movement? What keeps pulling the top end of the axis to the upper left?

djm

hmmmm....

it's the polar ice caps. If they melt or get bigger, it'll change.........

if we all (all humans on earth) jump up and down at the same time, we'll make it change........

give me time, I'll think up others. It's early.......

Snuh · Post by **Snuh** » Sat Dec 10, 2005 10:54 am

djm wrote: So that's the weird thing. How come the Earth's axis is always pointing from the upper left to the lower right, even at the equinox points? Why doesn't it swing away from the Sun in an even movement? What keeps pulling the top end of the axis to the upper left?

djm

Nothing is needed to keep pulling the axis to the upper left. Once it's there, it's going to stay there unless some OTHER force moves it. That's why it always points to the upper left.

MarkB · Post by **MarkB** » Sat Dec 10, 2005 11:10 am

That is until the poles flip, which they have done in the past.

Anomalies hint at magnetic pole flip
19:00 10 April 2002
Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition
Nicola Jones
The Earth's magnetic poles might be starting to flip say researchers who have seen strange anomalies in our planet's magnetic field.

The magnetic field is created by the flow of molten iron inside the Earth's core. These circulation patterns are affected by the planet's rotation, so the field normally aligns with the Earth's axis - forming the north and south poles.

But the way minerals are aligned in ancient rock shows that the planet's magnetic dipole occasionally disappears altogether, leaving a much more complicated field with many poles all over the planet. When the dipole comes back into force, the north and south poles can swap places.

The last reversal happened about 780,000 years ago, over a period of several thousand years. Now Gauthier Hulot from the Institute of Earth Sciences in Paris and his colleagues think they have spotted early signs of another reversal.

South African anomaly

They used data from the Ørsted satellite to study strange variations in the Earth's magnetic field. In particular, one large patch under South Africa is pointing in the opposite direction from the rest of the Earth's field and has been growing for hundreds of years.

The anomalies have already reduced the overall strength of the planet's magnetic field by about 10 per cent. If they continue to grow at the same rate, the Earth's dipole will disappear within just two millennia.

But Ørsted is the first satellite to take a snapshot of the Earth's magnetic field for 20 years, and such scant data makes it difficult to predict future shifts.

"We can't really tell what will happen," says Hulot. "But we speculate that we're in an unusual situation that might be related to a reversal."

Journal reference: Nature (vol 416, p 620)

A more detailed explanation here:

http://www.70south.com/news/1036926818/index_html

MarkB

IDAwHOa · Post by **IDAwHOa** » Sat Dec 10, 2005 11:29 am

Clear and dry (well, at least the sky was!) when I went to bed last night. This morning we are getting some light snow. Fortunately it is coming basically straight down, which means NO WIND!!!

Maybe it will finally warm up here for a while. -2 F when I got home from work the other day (at 3:30 AM.)

Cold is OK
Snow is OK
WIND is the devil!!!!!!

djm · Post by **djm** » Sat Dec 10, 2005 1:35 pm

Snuh wrote:Nothing is needed to keep pulling the axis to the upper left. Once it's there, it's going to stay there unless some OTHER force moves it. That's why it always points to the upper left.

If you take a marble and sput a spin on it inside a circular container, the pole moves, too, as it spins around the rim - like a roulette table. But Earth doesn't. That's what I haven't been able to understand.

djm