Doh!
That would have been much better!
Posted on 12/21/2014 10:48:25 AM PST by LucyT
Today, you might already know, is the winter solstice. That means for people living in the Northern Hemisphere, it's the longest night of the year.
However, as science blogger Colin Schultz points out, tonight will also be the longest night ever. At any location in the Northern Hemisphere, in other words, tonight's period of darkness will be slightly longer than any other, ever — at least, since the planet started spinning right around the time it was first formed some 4.5 billion years ago.
The reason is that the rotation of the Earth is slowing over time. Every year, scientists estimate, the length of a day increases by about 15 to 25 millionths of a second.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
About the same as yesterday (give or take a few millionths of a second).
‘Taken as a unit’ Huh?
Any external energy source big to significantly change the Earth’s angular momentum (like, say an asteroid impact) would also be enough to melt the Earth’s entire crust (and then some). It’s a fairly simple undergrad-level kinematics and thetmodynamics calculation.
This probably did actually happen at least once in Earth’s early history, and possibly many times. Look up ‘Impact Hypothesis’. A Mars-sized body named Theia smacked the Earth off-center and whacked off a chunk that formed the moon. That’s why the moon has a weird combination of terrestrial rocks and nomterrestrial rocks at different Apollo landing sites.
So yeah, that probably did spin things up a bit. :-)
For the night is dark and full of terrors
I was just wondering how much longer the days get every day no that the start getting longer. Is it 1 minute?
“Due to tidal friction, the Earth is slowly trading away its rotational speed for the moon’s increasing orbital distance. Eventually the Earth will become tidally locked with the moon. A day will be the same length as the moon’s orbit, with the same side of the Earth always facing the moon. A solar day then last be a month or longer, and the moon will always be in the same position in the sky.”
And the “idiots” are worried about global warming?
Doh!
That would have been much better!
Women and minorities hardest hit.
Global warming obviously to blame.
Balderdash. Everyone knows it’s the shortest day evah’ anyway.
Over the last 2,500 years, the average earth day has grown longer by between 15 millionths and 25 millionths of a second.
I must not be making it clear. If we have 10 hrs and 12 minutes of daylight today will we have 10 hrs and 13 minutes tomorrow? More than that? Less?
So, I wasn't just imagining this after all. :-)
Bush’s fault.
So much extra time on my hands.
No, because water was a lot lighter back then.
See, when the water moved from the poles to the equator, the earth not being a perfect sphere, the equatorial water was farther from the center of the earth, thus less affected by gravity. So the water was lighter.
OK, OK. It’s a stretch, but it’s as valid as anything Algore says, so I’m sticking with it. Don’t confuse me with science.
I’ve noticed that ever since Obama took over, the days just seem to be getting longer and longer.
Does the world spin 1/3 faster? I always take things literally with a spiritual meaning. Which is why I always ask so many questions. Merry Christmas, by the way!
The “days are shortened” by Yehova interrupting Satan’s plan, and taking his elect out for the marriage supper of the Lamb.
You have to know that all the rest left on Earth to watch this spectacle will be soiling their drawers!
.
;-) post-tribber.
It would take around 200 days before you would need to add a minute.
Move all the fat people to the polar regions and the earth will slow down.
I think we may have killed too many whales or something.
LOL. Lets get on the same page here. I’m not talking about milliseconds. I would never notice them without fancy gadgets. After the solstice the days start getting longer until the summer solstice. I was wondering how much the length of a day increases from the previous day.
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