Posted on 12/27/2004 6:48:27 PM PST by wagglebee
May have shortened the day by 3 microseconds, said gravity expert Richard Gross of Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena... On premise a slab slid into core, Gross said he's done calculations 'to see what effect this (earthquake) should have had.' The result: A day shortened... 'We won't know for weeks,' said a geophysicist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 'So it's a guess, as of now'...
These scientists who deal in natural disaster tend to deal with "premises" rather than facts. This is invariably followed by a pronouncement that the Republicans in the United States are to blame.
It will be Bush's fault by the end of the week. If he had signed the Kyoto treaty and funded stem cell research none of this would have occurred.
Does this mean that I owe the IRS less?
I knew there was a reason I felt particularly evil today......
"I have a feeling that a "gravity expert" at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory is paid pretty well."
Well, if he has ANY integrity he'll make sure they pro-rate his pay, since he's now working a slightly shorter shift...
No it means in a million years, the total angle traveled by the earth will be 3 x 10^-6 seconds x 10^6 years x 365.25 days/year x 360 degrees/day x 1day/86400 = ~4.6 degrees greater or about an additional eighth of a revolution. The effect on the length of day will still be 0.000003 seconds per day. (I have ignored the difference between sideral and mean solar days for simplicity. No freepmail please.)
Which is exactly what I said in a different way. (duh)
Uh, no, it's not at all. He (or she) is right & you are wrong.
Is the day shorter, or is my computer faster?
Or as one frog said to the other, "Time sure is fun when you're having flies."
From the USNO earth orientation website http://maia.usno.navy.mil/eop.html
"It is also possible that a large earthquake might affect polar motion, but to date, this effect has not been observed closely."
A mouse scurrying across the room changes the rotation of the earth. The earthquake will not measurably effect the earth's angular momentum, but if it changes the moments of interia, the rate will change, maybe just a wee bit.
Three microseconds corresponds to about 3 parts in ten billion change in the earth's moment of interia. Could be possible.
This is literally the end!! It's even worse than the Sierra Nevada 'hot-water-well' caper! I'm ready to enlist in the Telly-Tubbies!
Need any help?
Are Earthquakes Increasing?
There are several web pages which claim there is an increase in the number of earthquakes. Both secular and religious seers regard earthquakes to be a sign that civilization faces an impending cataclysm. E.g. In an article, "Signs of the End of the Age", at prophecyandcurrentevents.com/, they give stats from J. R. Church and Gary Stearman, editors of the magazine Prophecy in the News, which claimed that the number of Richter magnitude 6.0 and greater earthquakes worldwide has been increasing from nine in the 1950s to over 100 in the 90's. Stearman cites as his source the October 11, 1995 issue of the newspaper Philadelphia Inquirer.
The computer-searchable archives of the Philadelphia Inquirer reveal no article. When Stearman's readers confronted him with much more earthquake data than in the Philadelphia Inquirer, he was compelled to revise significantly these numbers. However, Stearman still insists that earthquakes are increasing. (See The Institute for Creation Research article "Earthquakes and Endtimes" at www.icr.org/pubs/imp/imp-295.htm)
The graph at the top of the page shows a 30 year cycle for "major" (magnitude 7.0 to 7.9) and "great" (magnitude 8.0 and higher) earthquakes, but the long term trend is flat. The number of strong (magnitude 6.0-6.9) quakes recorded increased over the 20th centuury, but many events smaller than magnitude 6.5 were not reported or properly measured for the early part of the century.
Sorry, I got lost in your reply that started with "darlin"...
before the rude awakening about your messing with HTML...:)
I think not. You seem to imply that there's a deceleration of 3 microseconds per year for a million years? I read it that way. Sorry.
I suspect this means an increase in global warming, which will require billions in environmental regulations and restrictions.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.