wonderfulinfo.com — The following list of Earth's extremes and other amazing facts is presented in Q&A format, so you can cover the answers to test your knowledge of the home planet. Sources include the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, with other reporting.
Dec 25, 2006 View in Crawl 4
mictlanianDec 26, 2006
wonderfulinfo.com is for dummies
clgonsalDec 26, 2006
@abbott75:Some Biblical literalists believe(d) that the Bible says that "the Earth stands still" and therefore the Earth could not orbit around anything. See <a class="user" href="http://www.skepticwiki.org/wiki/index.php/The_Earth_stands_still">http://www.skepticwiki.org/wiki/index.php/The_Earth_stands_still</a> . This was why Galileo was imprisoned, by the way. Obviously, most modern Christians don't have such a literal interpretation of the Bible.
avatar28Dec 26, 2006
Nope. That is actually correct. The moon used to be much closer and the earth's day much shorter. The moon has been slowly robbing the earth of rotational momentum due to tides. This energy is added to the moon's orbital energy, which is why it has been slowly moving away from the earth as well. The moon is already tidally locked to the earth, it's rotation matches it's orbital speed, which is why we always see the same side of it. Eventually, in a few billion more years, the earth will also be tidally locked to the moon so the moon would always seem to be in the same place in the sky. That's also what the question was referring to when it said a day would eventually be 960 hours long. If you want a more thorough explanation, I will leave that to Phil Plait, the "Bad Astronomer."<a class="user" href="http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/tides.html">http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/tides.html</a>
avatar28Dec 26, 2006
Yes, rocks float. It's called a pumice raft.<a class="user" href="http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=0403-102&VErupt=Y&VSources=Y&VRep=Y&VWeekly=N&volpage=photos&photo=005001">http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=0403-102&VErupt=Y&VSources=Y&VRep=Y&VWeekly=N&volpage=photos&photo=005001</a>or better still, this one<a class="user" href="http://yacht-maiken.blogspot.com/2006/08/stone-sea-and-volcano.html">http://yacht-maiken.blogspot.com/2006/08/stone-sea-and-volcano.html</a>(incidentally, this one was on Digg awhile back) If you've ever held pumice in your hand, you can see why it floats too. It seems almost unnaturally light to be a rock.
sergsamohinDec 26, 2006
Very-very interesting, thanks
md81544Dec 26, 2006
>I keep forgetting which page I am at though.Just look at the URL !
10lbhammerDec 26, 2006
did you forget about this one?:"Muc h of New Orleans actually sits 11 feet (3.4 meters) below sea level. Parts of the French quarter have sunk 2 feet in the past six decades. The city is protected by dikes, but all experts agree that storm tides from a direct hit by a major hurricane would breach the system and swamp much of the city."the article is stolen _and_ outdated.
crossingDec 27, 2006
I think 101 Steps to Becoming a Sage is a much better list.