--- In [email protected], Bronte Baxter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: <snip> > Judy wrote: > Actually, that the earth is losing its magnetic field > *is* mainstream; see this article on CNN.com from 2003: > > http://tinyurl. com/yzfv > > Apparently the loss has been measured since 1945. > > Bronte: > Didn't know that. Thanks! You seem quite scientifically > informed, Judy. Do you do work in science for a living?
Nope, afraid not. I have a broad interest in science, but it's pretty shallow. In this case, I vaguely remembered reading something awhile back about the loss of the magnetic field in some newspaper, so I googled "earth losing its magnetic field" and came up with the CNN story. (Practically any headline with "Mystery" in it will get my attention, especially if it's a scientific mystery.) > Judy wrote: > The "fringe" aspect has to do with what the loss > *means*. Most mainstream scientists don't think it > necessarily means an imminent reversal of the poles, > much less a reversal of the earth's rotation. (And > if the earth's rotation were slowing down preparatory > to stopping and reversing, it would be observable on > a gross level because the length of a day would > increase. If the reversal were going to happen in > 2012, we would already be very well aware of it.) > > Bronte: > I've wondered about that point myself, but how about this angle? If you take a pendalum hanging from a string and spin it, it goes a while in one direction. Then, to my recollection (I haven't done this recently), it suddenly stops, pauses a second, then starts spinning full-speed in the other direction. There is no slowing down in the process of stopping, it just stops and reverses. Maybe it's like that for the earth twirling in space -- reaching the end of whatever force sent it spinning in the first place, then experiencing the reaction to that spin in the form of reverse direction. I just tried to make a pendalum to experiment with this, to make sure I'm remembering correctly, but I don't have the right stuff to do it with. My girlfriend has a pendalum, and I've got a call in to her to ask her to spin the thing and see if it slows down prior to reversal. I've never heard this! Please let us know what you find out. Very intriguing.
