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BS: the world is slowing down

15 Nov 07 - 07:33 AM (#2194276)
Subject: BS: the world is slowing down
From: Mr Red

Literally - the answer is Blowing in the Wind - my friend

El Nino apparently causes such a ferment in the upper atmosphere that the Jetstream wizzes around and by the laws of conservation of momentum the mass of the earth has to slow down to maintain the total angular momentum of the whole. So our day is slowing down by 1mS when El Nino gusts. Now you may think that is incedental but in three years that could be a whole second (probably more like 5 years). Scientists needed to have a leap second only about 10 years ago, and El has been blowing more often since.

And the exact mechanism of an even more significant slowing down eludes me but I read that also in a recent issue of the New Scientist. I will post when I find it - but right now I am running late............

15 Nov 07 - 07:43 AM (#2194281)
Subject: RE: BS: the world is slowing down
From: GUEST,Keinstein

If the angular momentum is conserved, unless the energy is radiated away, when El Nino finishes, the earth must pick up speed again. Over the longer term, it all evens out.

15 Nov 07 - 08:41 AM (#2194321)
Subject: RE: BS: the world is slowing down
From: Geoff the Duck

If the World is slowing down, how come it just seems like an eye blink since last Thursday?
Quack!
GtD.

15 Nov 07 - 08:45 AM (#2194325)
Subject: RE: BS: the world is slowing down
From: Rapparee

Gravitational forces are degrading the Earth's orbit, too. This means that the orbit is speeding up as the Earth falls into the Sun. So the year is actually getting shorter but you needn't worry because the planet is going to fall into the Sun anyway.

The Moon's orbit is also degrading and it will crash into the Earth.

Please panic out of doors.

Thank you.

15 Nov 07 - 08:51 AM (#2194330)
Subject: RE: BS: the world is slowing down
From: George Papavgeris

So what is the Government doing about it, I'd like to know...

15 Nov 07 - 09:19 AM (#2194342)
Subject: RE: BS: the world is slowing down
From: GUEST,PMB

I hope the Earth crashes into the sun at night, so it isn't so hot.

15 Nov 07 - 09:36 AM (#2194347)
Subject: RE: BS: the world is slowing down
From: Donuel

Both claims are FALSE



1
The moon's orbit is continually getting farther from Earth and has been doing so since its capture/formation.

2
The "spin" of the Earth has speeded up ever so little. One cause was the massive ocean floor collapse that created the giant sunami.
Like a spinning figure skater who brings in her arms a bit, the spin will accelerate.

As regards to the orbital speed of the Earth around the Sun... I do not have the current data so I do not know.

15 Nov 07 - 09:46 AM (#2194355)
Subject: RE: BS: the world is slowing down
From: Donuel

yeah I know the t is silent, I just forgot to ype it.

15 Nov 07 - 10:16 AM (#2194395)
Subject: RE: BS: the world is slowing down
From: Amos

The real problem, which the scientists never mention, is that the Earth is destined to fall into the Pacific Ocean in less than three thousand years. Very hush-hush, of course; no-one wants to accelerate the devaluation of California real estate, so the newspapers are cooperating with the Bush Administration to suppress the scientific evidence. But the measurements are inescapable. Those of you who are doing estate planning and have dreams of legacy and dynasty and such take note.

A

15 Nov 07 - 11:56 AM (#2194501)
Subject: RE: BS: the world is slowing down
From: Bill D

Nonsense! The real truth is that cracks will open on the ocean floor, and the ocean will run down INTO the hot, molten core of the Earth, causing a monumental geyser of steam and water every St. Swithun's Day... The result will be called "Old FaceFull".

15 Nov 07 - 12:19 PM (#2194520)
Subject: RE: BS: the world is slowing down
From: Amos

Come, come, Bill. Surely you are beneath such drivel?


A

15 Nov 07 - 12:24 PM (#2194527)
Subject: RE: BS: the world is slowing down
From: Bert

...the world is slowing down...

Nah! it's just me that's slowing down.

15 Nov 07 - 01:19 PM (#2194573)
Subject: RE: BS: the world is slowing down
From: Don Firth

I am deeply concerned about this!
Orville Tutsniddle lived in a small house near Malibu, with a beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean. One night he had a horrible, vivid dream. It was about the massive, cataclysmic earthquake, predicted for years, that would cause the western edge of California to split off and topple into the ocean. The dream was so vivid and seemed so prophetic, that Orville was convinced that, not only would it happen, but that it was imminent. Frighteningly imminent!

He grabbed his wallet and a few important papers, threw a change of clothes into a suitcase, and, in a near panic, he leapt into his car. But as he was turning the key, the ground convulsed! He held onto the steering wheel for dear life as the car rocked, shook, shuddered, and bounced around in the driveway. The quake went on and on, and it seemed that it would keep going forever. Orville was convinced that he was too late, that, indeed sometime in the next moment or two, he would feel the ground tip, and he, his automobile, his house, and the rest of western California would be precipitated into the Pacific Ocean. He was doomed!

But gradually, the quake subsided. He sat there, dazed, suddenly realizing that all was calm and quiet. The quake was over. And he had survived! He had not been hurled into the ocean.

But he still felt the panic he had awakened with that morning. This quake, he felt, may have been merely a prelude to an even bigger quake. So he kept to his original plan. He started the engine, drove to the highway, and sped eastward. He had to get east of the San Andreas fault, where he would be safe.

He had not driven all that many miles and realized that he was about to cross the fault. In a few more minutes he would be safe!

But suddenly, what met his eyes cause him to hit the brakes hard, bringing the car to an abrupt stop. An icy hand gripped his heart as he slowly got out of the car, walked to the edge of a newly formed cliff, and found himself gazing at the Atlantic Ocean, lapping at the eastern shore of California. . . .

####

The astronomy professor had just finished his lecture on the life cycle of main-sequence, G-type stars, like our own sun. He described how the star forms out of a rotating cloud of interstellar gas and dust, how, when enough mass gathers at the center of the vortex, the immense gravitational pressures cause thermonuclear reactions to take place, and the star ignites. A main-sequence star, such as the sun, usually lasts ten to twelve billion years, then as it burns up its nuclear fuel, it bloats into a red giant, consuming most or all of its planets, and then collapses into a white dwarf.

"Our sun," he said, "is about 4.5 billion years old. I will probably use up its fuel and bloat into a red giant in anywhere from 5 to 7 billion years."

A hand went up in the back row.

"How long did you say it would be before that happened?" a student asked anxiously.

"5 to 7 billion years," answered the professor.

"Oh!" said the student. "Thank God! I thought you said 'million!'"
Don Firth

15 Nov 07 - 02:30 PM (#2194612)
Subject: RE: BS: the world is slowing down
From: Bill D

"...Surely you are beneath such drivel?"

nawww...right on top of it!

15 Nov 07 - 04:15 PM (#2194716)
Subject: RE: BS: the world is slowing down
From: autolycus

geoff, the answer to yours is, cos you're getting older, you naughty man.

As for me, my world seems to be speeding up.



      Ivor

15 Nov 07 - 04:25 PM (#2194730)
Subject: RE: BS: the world is slowing down
From: Slag

"...he left one day,
In a relative way,
And returned the previous night"

It's all how you look at it.

15 Nov 07 - 04:30 PM (#2194737)
Subject: RE: BS: the world is slowing down
From: Rapparee

Tidal effects result in an increase of the mean Earth-Moon distance of about 3.8 m per century, or 3.8 cm per year. As a result of the conservation of angular momentum, the increasing semimajor axis of the Moon is accompanied by a gradual slowing of the Earth's rotation by about 0.002 seconds per day per century.

And so, as the Moon recedes in the sky and the Earth slows in its orbit, lovers will have longer and longer to gaze at a smaller and smaller Moon in June, except that before that the Sun will have bloated into a Red Giant and we'll all fry.

15 Nov 07 - 04:50 PM (#2194764)
Subject: RE: BS: the world is slowing down
From: Mr Red

I remember now
The the ice caps at latitudes that produce little angular momentum but when they melt the rise in sea level will be global and therefore the increased mass at the equator (and pro rata through the latitudes) means that the earth will slow down because the angular momentum hasn't changed but the radius of the mean mass has. That should produce a longer day. which maounts-up. Leap seconds here we come. Global warming? Know have thought through all the ramifications? Yea sure.

As for El Nino, if there is no leakage of momentum, any free mass that moves within the "mass of the whole earth" will force the other bits to accommodate. Jetstream is just such a free moving mass.

Just watch racing cyclists push their bike forward past the line, they do it by moving back on the bike. It reduces stage times by fractions but they all do it. Their momentum doesn't change but the front wheel gets there just a little bit sooner than if they didn't do it. 100 yard dash - they lean, same story.

15 Nov 07 - 05:26 PM (#2194803)
Subject: RE: BS: the world is slowing down
From: Don Firth

I recall reading some years ago that astronaut Jim Lovell, due to the amount of time he had spent in space traveling at relatively (!) high velocities, is approximately .003 of a second younger than he would have been otherwise.

Don Firth

15 Nov 07 - 11:09 PM (#2195028)
Subject: RE: BS: the world is slowing down
From: Rapparee

There was a young lady named Bright
Whose kisses were faster than light.
While kissing one day
In an Einsteinian way,
She enjoyed it the previous night.

16 Nov 07 - 01:57 AM (#2195074)
Subject: RE: BS: the world is slowing down
From: Slag

What a drag.

16 Nov 07 - 12:06 PM (#2195348)
Subject: RE: BS: the world is slowing down
From: Don Firth

There was a young fencer named Fisk
Whose swordplay was exceedingly brisk.
So fast was his action,
The Fitzgerald Contraction
Reduced his foil to a disk.
                                        --Anonymous

Don Firth

17 Nov 07 - 08:09 AM (#2195862)
Subject: RE: BS: the world is slowing down
From: Mr Red

Why El Niňo makes Earth Spin Slower
New Scientist Oct 20 2007 page 22
reporting on work by Jean Dickey of the Californian Institute of Technology.

Now can anyone explain how to post an "n" with tilda above instead of a grave (or whatever the v/u is called)?