LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) — The deadly Asian earthquake may have permanently accelerated the Earth’s rotation, shortening days by a fraction of a second and caused the planet to wobble on its axis, U.S. scientists said Tuesday.
[I’ve done that on mine, occasionally. / - the guestblogger :]
Richard Gross, a geophysicist with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, theorized that a shift of mass toward the Earth’s center during the quake Sunday caused the planet to spin 3 microseconds, or millionths of a second, faster and to tilt about an inch on its axis.
When one huge tectonic plate beneath the Indian Ocean was forced below the edge of another “it had the effect of making the Earth more compact and spinning faster,” Gross said.
Ahhhh … and did it change any precession effect ? Or any libration effect ? Or any nutation effect ?
Let’s see … precession is wobble in rotation …
Who wants to tell us, from memory, not from a search engine, what each of the other two is ? (innocent grin)
Actually, I cannot remember which of the other two is wobble in the precession, and the last one is rotationally-related albeit even *more* obscurely …
As a smart-alec kid, when others might have said “Sit on it and rotate !”, I was heard to utter “Sit on it and precess !” … (shaking head) … I’m still not certain how I survived adolescence …
Hee hee…”…and precess”, very good…Survived it! And here we always thought you’d basically decided to stay In it, AlasdairAlastorPrime. :) Well - temperamentally, I mean. :) Young at Heart and all that sort of rot eh wot? :)
This is true: in a Biology class at my high school the teacher (universally known as “Squirrel” Norris btw :) asked my friend Lew, the Smart kid, to relate how, in scientific terms, we would differentiate between the male and the female reproductive systems. So the cunning punning punk expounds,“Oh, there’s a vas deferens.” (Yer man never did get to elaborate, as I recall…think old Squirrel had to call in the paramedics to treat the convulsing young scholars… :)
But the Libation effect, yeah, I remember that one. :) Didn’t I already Post that I’ve been known to Wobble on my Axis, meself? :) Think I actually Fell on it one time…Yes, it was back in oul’ Ballinascorthy…nyaah, nevermind. :)
Now as for your processional mutation effects, Per-fesser, I’m not sure. :) I may have seen one at the beginning of Mass last Sunday morning but thenagainfinnegan, it could have just been Fighting Father Feeney wobbling on his axis. / Again. / (Miracle at Cana & all that sort of rot, eh wot? :)
WAW HAW HAW! Dammit, Alasdair, there’s just no topping you. :)
Well truth be Told & Sad to say: in Those days at That school, there were no scholarettes. Fancypants private school — me sainted Mother Gawd rest ‘er was something of a Social Climber y’see :) — and, All Boys. (Andrew, shaddup. :)
We talkin’ like 1963, here. There was an affiliated Sister school nearby but never the twain didst Meet (well - not Officially, heh heh… :) except at brutally-Chaperoned mixers & Proms (Youse Kids Today never even heard of “mixers” I bet. :) / And the place wasn’t even run by Muslims. Protestants. Episcopalians or something, I dunno, one o ‘ them Church of England type outfits. :)
Today the 2 schools are long since Consolidated into one.
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December 29th, 2004 at 7:29:12 pm
Ahhhh … and did it change any precession effect ? Or any libration effect ? Or any nutation effect ?
Let’s see … precession is wobble in rotation …
Who wants to tell us, from memory, not from a search engine, what each of the other two is ? (innocent grin)
Actually, I cannot remember which of the other two is wobble in the precession, and the last one is rotationally-related albeit even *more* obscurely …
As a smart-alec kid, when others might have said “Sit on it and rotate !”, I was heard to utter “Sit on it and precess !” … (shaking head) … I’m still not certain how I survived adolescence …
December 29th, 2004 at 10:48:07 pm
Hee hee…”…and precess”, very good…Survived it! And here we always thought you’d basically decided to stay In it, AlasdairAlastorPrime. :) Well - temperamentally, I mean. :) Young at Heart and all that sort of rot eh wot? :)
This is true: in a Biology class at my high school the teacher (universally known as “Squirrel” Norris btw :) asked my friend Lew, the Smart kid, to relate how, in scientific terms, we would differentiate between the male and the female reproductive systems. So the cunning punning punk expounds,“Oh, there’s a vas deferens.” (Yer man never did get to elaborate, as I recall…think old Squirrel had to call in the paramedics to treat the convulsing young scholars… :)
But the Libation effect, yeah, I remember that one. :) Didn’t I already Post that I’ve been known to Wobble on my Axis, meself? :) Think I actually Fell on it one time…Yes, it was back in oul’ Ballinascorthy…nyaah, nevermind. :)
Now as for your processional mutation effects, Per-fesser, I’m not sure. :) I may have seen one at the beginning of Mass last Sunday morning but thenagainfinnegan, it could have just been Fighting Father Feeney wobbling on his axis. / Again. / (Miracle at Cana & all that sort of rot, eh wot? :)
December 29th, 2004 at 11:11:22 pm
Joe - yer friend Lew didn’t get a standing ovulation from the scholarettes ?
December 30th, 2004 at 2:02:33 am
WAW HAW HAW! Dammit, Alasdair, there’s just no topping you. :)
Well truth be Told & Sad to say: in Those days at That school, there were no scholarettes. Fancypants private school — me sainted Mother Gawd rest ‘er was something of a Social Climber y’see :) — and, All Boys. (Andrew, shaddup. :)
We talkin’ like 1963, here. There was an affiliated Sister school nearby but never the twain didst Meet (well - not Officially, heh heh… :) except at brutally-Chaperoned mixers & Proms (Youse Kids Today never even heard of “mixers” I bet. :) / And the place wasn’t even run by Muslims. Protestants. Episcopalians or something, I dunno, one o ‘ them Church of England type outfits. :)
Today the 2 schools are long since Consolidated into one.