Fri, 15 Nov 2024 20:37:31 -0600 "David C. Rankin" <drankinatty@gmail.com> :
On 11/14/24 9:51 PM, bent fender wrote:
Thu, 14 Nov 2024 17:52:46 -0800 Lew Wolfgang <wolfgang@sweet-haven.com> :
On 11/14/24 16:44, David C. Rankin wrote:
On 11/13/24 5:44 AM, bent fender wrote:
How would such a flip affect magnetic media (or everything electric for that matter)?
It wouldn't. The only thing it effect is where the needle points on your compass and the direction grains solidify in rock as it cools from magma :)
I do wonder what would happen with respect to protection from the solar wind? And I wonder how long it would take to flip? If a day or two, probably minimal effects? But if it took 10,000 years?
Regards, Lew
Read about it a long time ago, I think at times there was frequent oscillation for maybe up to 100,000 years before the definitive flip. So I was wondering about the 3-finger rule of electric motors.
Things are definitely in flux, especially at mid-to northern/southern latitudes. I fly. One thing that is critical when doing things the old way, dead-reckoning with a compass and watch, is to correct for "magnetic declination" (the difference between magnetic north and true north).
My memory is still as sharp as a razor blade but not much wider than its edge any more. We used to call it variation because once properly marinated too many confused declination with dip as the floor flew up to hit them in the face. Long hours earlier you would quietly have taken out your jeppesen computer (just kind of doodling as if you had nothing better to do) with a standing pencil stuck in the middle and maybe moved and turned it until the sun's shadow fell on the reciprocal of Z*15-WestLong. At that moment 0 was your true North and you could eyeball your true heading from that. It was a good ballpark check of the subsequent astro-compass work that you would next ask Mr. GearHandle to do if the sun was on the right. It was also a good way to validate the whole freakin' pacman horror that was just beginning to infest until then 'steamgauge' cockpits :-)
Just since the 90's the declination in my area has changed by 5% (and that's at 31.7N latitude).
The true axis wobbles somewhat, I wonder if declination-drift has to do with that? All that hot slop trying to keep up with its magnetic field in trail. Seasonal lag is a good two months, maybe there's a long-cycle magnetic equivalent.
I had read sever papers of the last decade on the fluctuations and how we are heading to another pole-swap, and if I recall, this is in somewhat of an accelerated manner compared to the normal period and rate.
Most will be oblivious to changes, unless you use a compass or happen to catch the aurora over Saharan Africa during the swap. The effect on charged-particles means you get more where the poles are as the magnetic field-lines dip towards earth. There were some other "possible" climate effects I hadn't thought of, that this BBC article mentions:
https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/space-science/earth-magnetic-field-revers...
But, after thorough reading, we can all take comfort that Leap and Tumbleweed will be unaffected :)
I don't know, after all Linux is a cancer and Linus is an anti-christ, I can see it already, "looming pole-flip the work of digital rebel conspiracy with hacked phones".
-- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.