The solar cycle originated thanks to fruitcake [Fc]. All the fruitcake
in the universe was created at the Big Bang, along with a lot of
hydrogen [H] and some helium [He]. The hydrogen and helium began to
float upward of course ... think Goodyear or Hindenburg ... but the Fc,
being the densest thing in the universe began to gather the H and He
into massive clumps using its gravity.
When the hydrogen became dense enough around the fruitcake, it began to
fuse -- two H --> one He. The helium atom weighed just a bit less than
the two hydrogen's which showed up as a lot of energy which heated the
clump until it began to emit light and other stuff [a technical term
used by astrophysicists]. Eventually two He began to fuse producing one
lithium [Li] atom and a lot more energy. This of course was the
beginning of laptop and cell phone batteries -- and Tesla.
This continued until almost all of the H and He was iron [Fe]. There
was also the fruitcake of course, nothing fuses with fruitcake. To fuse
two Fe atoms would produce negative energy which hadn't been invented
then, so with nothing left to do, the clump exploded and that was the
first solar cycle.
All that fusing produced heavier elements which drifted around in space
and eventually formed more hot, bright clumps with fruitcake at the
center. Some atoms were aluminum [Al] which formed into vast sheets
called Reynolds Wrap [Rw], and which had an affinity for the Fc,
wrapping itself around the Fc like Glad Wrap wraps around everything in
the kitchen but the dish you're trying to cover. That's how we find
fruitcake today.
With the heavier elements, the hot bright clumps settled into a pattern
of occasional explosions or semi-explosions, and that became the solar
cycle we know, love, and anxiously wait for.
There is a Conservation of Fruitcake law. You can't destroy it. You
can give it away, however it is nearly uniformly distributed in the
universe and likely will come back at some point, usually around Christmas.
Many things have a half-life ... the time it takes for half of it to
disappear or morph into something else. The half-life of both disco and
leisure suits was blessedly short. The half-life of fruitcake is forever.
Eat your heart out, NOVA.
73,
Fred K6DGW
Rocket Scientist
On 7/21/2016 12:05 PM, w7aqk wrote:
Hi All,
FWIW, there was a very interesting program I watched last night on PBS.
The regular program called "Nova" had a most informative discussion
about the solar cycle and how it affects us here on Earth. It won't
tell you everything you want to know about propagation, etc., but it
does give a lot of perspective as to why our communications can be so
disrupted by solar storms. They also talked a lot about "sunspots"! We
tend to think the more the better for us, but do we really understand
how they form, and the effect they have? This gives you some insight
about that.
Anyway, you might want to check it out, and I think you can watch it
online at www.pbs.org/nova.
Dave W7AQK
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