Interesting semi-related randomness: I was reading through Neil deGrasse Tyson’s wonderful “Death by Black Hole” this afternoon and he mentioned a little snippet of how we might actually affect the Earth’s orbit due to chaos. He ran a computer model of the Earth’s orbit around the sun and gave one small “push” equivalent of the launch of one satellite rocket into space. Over the course of 6 billion years, that single “nudge” changed the predicted location of Earth in the orbit by 60 degrees. Of course, in 4 to 5 billion years the planet’s going to be engulfed in the outer layers of the sun, but it’s still an entertaining tidbit.
Having had to take a CA temp assignment, I managed to fly home to NH over the weekend, Oakland to Chicago to MHT.
The return flight from Midway to Oakland arrived twenty minutes early, the pilot stating that the winds aloft were less than normally encountered.
With a full bird, I doubt that the 737’s performance has
increased, but then I’m merely reporting what I experienced yesterday.
YMMV, of course.