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Back in 1884, a Swiss astronomer by the name of Arndt made headlines when he claimed to have discovered a very curious planet in an orbit beyond Neptune — a surprisingly cubical planet. You know, like Bizarro World from the Super Man comics.
Of course even in 1884, everyone knew this was bunk. The New York Times even ran a piece titled “The Cubical Planet” in their Nov. 16 edition. As informative as it is stuffy, the Gilded Age article interviews physicist Dr. Theodore Vankirk, who first dismisses the prospect of a square planet as pure hooey, and then proceeds to wax scientific about just what a cube world would be like.
You can’t play this kind of game without impacting the environment. As reported over at New Scientist, a new study reveals how the contrails of WW2 bomber aircraft affected climate. Contrails of course are the white trails left behind by soaring aircraft, and as you might imagine fleets of bombers practically painted the skies over Europe.
Last night and early this morning, the southeast was rocked with massive storm cells that triggered dozens of tornadoes across several states, including Georgia. Our HowStuffWorks.com office is in Atlanta. I was up late last night watching the weather reports, paying attention to tornado watches and warnings and hoping my friends in the outlying areas of metro Atlanta stayed safe. The three-dimensional models of Doppler radar readings were invaluable tools — they gave us an early warning when conditions were right for tornado formation.
The nuclear situation in Japan grows worse with each passing day. Back on Monday there was a very small amount of radioactive material being vented in Japan. There was not much concern of danger even in Japan itself. A few days later there is concern that a plume of radioactive material might make it all [...]
Going to prison seems a little harsh, but the education aspect is refreshing: If you would like to learn more about the difference between climate and weather, these links can help: – How Weather Works – How Global Warming Works [[[Jump to previous Funny...]]] If you would like to follow Brainstuff on Twitter or Facebook, [...]
Weather forecasting is a fickle business. Certain things can be predicted with fairly high accuracy with a week of lead time – Hurricanes are an example. If a hurricane forms, it’s subsequent behavior is fairly predictable although the exact landfall coordinates can be hard to pinpoint. But the 5-day or 10-day forecast that you see [...]
Two inches of water spread across 10,000 square feet equals 13,000 gallons or so (enough to fill a small swimming pool). Do that for 10 weeks and it is 130,000 gallons, or $1,300. That’s enough money to buy a nice HDTV, spent on water. It could make a good argument for not planting a lawn, except that when you’re not in a drought, that $1,300 falls for free from the sky. For free! That’s the miracle of rain….
You Asked:
How is weather report visibility measured? — Pete, Fairfax, Va.
Marshall Brain Answers…
Nor’easters are storm systems that frequently occur in the eastern United States during winter. In this episode, Marshall explains where Nor’easters get their name, how they work and why some Nor’easters are more powerful than others.
Louis C.K. tells the story of a recent flight to New York…
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