Hot electric premiere.

[caddyman]

So yesterday as usual I sloped off early from work for games night. A good thing, too – the heat would have been unbearable on the tube if it was packed. I have yet to decide how best to approach the same journey tonight, I guess it will be back to the post 6pm train in the hope of missing the crowds. I can’t keep disappearing home from work early (though I’d like to).

Getting home was fine. Getting in to find that the power was off was a bit more disappointing. I fancied a cup of coffee, but frankly I was damned if I was going to stand by the stove and boil water in a pan. So I did the only sensible thing left to me. I went upstairs, got changed into a tee-shirt and shorts and flaked out on the bed. When I awoke some 2 hours later, the power was back, colonel_maxim having arrived back at the Athenaeum Club during my kip with the recharged prepay for the meter (I wish we had a proper electricity meter). This is good if for no other reason than I really need the electric fan to give me the illusion that I am being kept cool at night. I guess I should eventually doze of anyway, given that I managed it when I got home, but…

I remain perplexed by simple laws of physics.

Today the Earth reaches the aphelion of its orbit around the sun. It is over three million miles further out than it is in January when we are closest. Why then, the extra distance can’t make up for the fact that that we (in the northern hemisphere) are tilted toward the sun is beyond me. In winter, when we are tilted away, you might be excused for thinking that despite having the sun’s rays hit is at an angle, being more than 3 million miles closer might compensate. It doesn’t, or at least not enough to notice.

I shall just have to hope that the Met Office is correct and that we shall get thunderstorms from tomorrow.

On a final note, I see that Keira Knightley attended the London premier of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest yesterday and nearly forgot to wear a dress. As my mother would say, it was a daring little thing that she just threw on and nearly missed. It was quite fetching in a “this will be exciting if the wind blows” sort of way.

She could probably do with a good meal with lots of suet in it.

Comments

[ysharros.livejournal.com]

mmm Keira. I think t'was manamar who used to refer to such confections as "gownless evening straps".

mmMmmMmMMMmmmm, Johnny Depp. Had to be said. I'll just get me coat.

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

"gownless evening straps".

Don't tell him I said so, but the boy's a genius!

[sack-boy.livejournal.com]

There's a couple of factors, both as a result of the tilt, that affect the heat. Firstly, as you say, in the winter the angle means that the amount of the solar energy per square metre is reduced compared to the summer. Secondly the shorter days in the winter mean that there is less time to warm up the area with that reduced energy supply.

The earth's perihelion (1.02 AU) is about 1.04 times further out than the aphelion (0.98 AU), by the inverse square law this comes out about 1.083 times less energy. In contrast the average length of a summer day (~15 hrs) is about 67% longer than a winter day (~9 hrs) which is significantly greater than the variation in solar energy. Add in the increase in energy caused by the angle of incidence then you will have a much greater greater affect.

Well, that's my theory, at least.

And I agree re meals with suet in, scrawny bean poles are not nice.

[ash1977law.livejournal.com]

No no... it all has to do with Anti-Light... I'm sure of it. The closer we are to the sun the more Light & Anti-Light reaches us. Now as we all know Dark is faster than Light, and Anti-Light is just really cold Dark. This means the closer you get to the sun the colder you will get. Deep space by comparison is really hot, which is why there are no planets out there, because they boil off and become gas clouds.

[sack-boy.livejournal.com]

Ahh - not quite right dear chap. You seem to forget the interactions with phlogiston and the Æther.

[ash1977law.livejournal.com]

Æther became unfashionable ages ago dear chap... it's now called 'vaccume energy', 'permeating dark energy' or suchlike. It's funny how these new faddish quantumnumum scientists 'disprove' perfectly good concepts then have to reinvent them to explain their findings.

[ash1977law.livejournal.com]

Quantum Physics: There's a Thing
by Graham Adair



Quantum physics. There’s a thing.
I’ve heard of nothing stranger.
You fancy juggling atoms? Well
Be mindful of the danger.
For thoughts of protons, quarks and muons:
Such exotic matter,
Are apt to tie your brain in knots,
Your sleepful nights to shatter.


The Big Bang. Sheesh! Well strike a light!
Is that what really happened?
You’re telling me we all began
As matter crushed and flattened?
And then some great explosion
Thrust us all forth into being?
I think The Big Baloney’s
A better name for what we’re seeing.


Black Holes -- what? You’re kidding me!
A huge contrivance, surely.
A ruse by Stephen Hawking
(Who accepts his praise demurely.)
So if it’s true that black holes
Suck and swallow up all matter,
Why don’t they eat up physicists
And all their nonsense patter?


And what of blessed Einstein
And his General Relativity?
Accepted though it may be
It’s a triumph of complicity.
You test it by experiment,
And analyse the outcome.
And if it makes no sense
You just amend the main theorem!


Herr Heisenberg is in a quandary,
Can’t make up his mind.
He’s dreaming up a Principle,
But unsure what he’ll find.
He thinks the laws of physics
Pose a crisis he’s averting,
But ‘til his theory’s testable
We’ll all remain Uncertain.


Well hip-hooray for SuperStrings!
A unifying theory!
At last we have a model
That’ll settle every query.
But hang on -- it’s just wacky concepts
Fraught with terminology…
It makes no sense; it’s full of holes,
It’s rubbish!
All apologies.


Now here’s a laugh: you take a clock,
And send it into space.
When down it comes, you check the time.
And Lo! It’s lost its pace.
It seems that hours pass slower
As you near the speed of light.
Time-travel’s a reality! And pigs are airborne.
Quite.


There’s dark misgivings on the rise:
Dark Energy, Dark Matter.
A new theory for why
The Universe is getting fatter.
But is it really growing?
Maybe we ourselves are shrinking!
Collapsing to a speck
Beneath the weight of quantum thinking!


A Cyclic Universe
Is what they’re telling us we live in.
A Big Bang first, expand, contract;
Then Big Crunch, new beginning.
The contents of the universe
Are bound for all eternity
To grow and live, then shrink and die,
Repeating to infinity.


In which case, all the laws of physics
Won’t be here for long.
Like us, they’ll bend and buckle
When the Big Crunch comes along.
The point of Singularity
Will deconstruct all logic,
Our physics theories then will seem
Less real than Discworld magic!


In closing, here’s an observation
Likely to confuse.
The Uncertainty Principle
Declares surprising news:
“To take a thing and look at it
Will change its very state.”
So don’t read my opinions, lest you change them.
Oops. Too late.

[queenortart.livejournal.com]

I remain perplexed by simple laws of physics.

Me too - that frock defies gravity.

[bluesman.livejournal.com]

Yes, Ms Knightley seems like a nice girl, but the poor wee thing really could do with some meat on her bones. Dr Two-Dog prescribes a couple of carne asada burritos from the Mexican supermarket across the street from our church. Eminently tasty and gloriously greasy.