Seriously, the Earth’s orbit is so close to a circle it’s hard to tell. Here’s proof: One of these is a circle, the other is an ellipse the shape of Earth’s orbit. Which is which?pic.twitter.com/QXmPGURo7v
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Seriously, the Earth’s orbit is so close to a circle it’s hard to tell. Here’s proof: One of these is a circle, the other is an ellipse the shape of Earth’s orbit. Which is which?pic.twitter.com/QXmPGURo7v
(heh. Replies are split, but more people are getting it right than wrong)
The circle is on the left, the ellipse on the right. I think I can tell, but barely. The change in distance means a change in incoming sunlight, which changes the Earth’s temperature, right? Well…
The temperature difference, from physics, is about 2°C. But it’s way more complicated than that. Oceans in southern hemisphere absorb a lot of it, so temp swings are minimized, for example.
I’ve written about this here: https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/perihelion-2016 … Our axial tilt drives the seasons far, far more than the ellipticity of Earth’s orbit. Here’s the math, on my ancient website (translated from cuneiform): http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/seasons.html …
So enjoy the very slightly larger appearing Sun! Perihelion won’t be around for another year… when the Earth itself comes around again.
An animation of the Sun's "changing" size.https://twitter.com/tony873004/status/1080626823543705600 …
That’s vaguely disturbing.
It probably doesn't do it that fast in real life.
Yes, its fast forward, but the calendar is shown on the animation.
I know. Bad joke.
I laughed if it makes you feel any better
If I had solar, would I notice any improved output? Or is it too minuscule to measure.
Maaaaaybe. But it would be hard to measure given daily variations in air transparency. Maybe using lots of panels scattered across a large area, and using a very long time baseline.
This makes me want to clean out the boxes in my garage and find my old 3rd year Geodesy notes from my classes with the late great Prof Norm Edwards and Rod Deakin from RMIT. It was the most intriguing subject, with ridiculous mathematical solutions.
I’ve always wanted to take a celestial navigation class from an expert. The trig is fun, and I already have a decent head start on the math, geometry, and astronomy.
RMIT in Melb Australia will have a contact for Rod Deakin. He is a brilliant mathematical exponent of this discipline but also a happy to converse with all and sundry. He once presented a paper that involved his email exchange with the descendents of numerous maths geniuses.
Earth is Flat
I know you’re just a joke page, but I find it amazing there are people that really believe that shit. They think we’re on a frisbee or something. And for some mysterious reason, the Government is conspiring to make us think that the world is round. Because, well, just because.
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