Ocean Currents Proposed As Cause of Magnetic Field 333
pjt33 notes a recently published paper proposing that ocean currents could account for Earth's magnetic field. The wrteup appears on the Institute of Physics site; the IOP is co-owner, with the German Physical Society, of the open-access journal in which the paper appears. This reader adds, "The currently predominant theory is that the cause of Earth's magnetic field is molten iron flowing in the outer core. There is at present no direct evidence for either theory." "Professor Gregory Ryskin from the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern University in Illinois, US, has defied the long-standing convention by applying equations from magnetohydrodynamics to our oceans' salt water (which conducts electricity) and found that the long-term changes (the secular variation) in the Earth's main magnetic field are possibly induced by our oceans' circulation."
Polarity switch (Score:4, Funny)
Re:But this would mean?!?!?!?!? (Score:4, Funny)
What was it before?
A coffee coaster.
Re:I may be wrong, Im not an astrologer (Score:5, Funny)
I can pretty much guarantee that astrologers would have no idea what you're talking about :)
Re: Uh, right. (Score:4, Funny)
Occam's Razor was the razor to own. Then the other guy came out with a three-blade razor. Were we scared? Hell, no. Because we hit back with a little thing called the Occam's Razor Turbo. That's three blades and an aloe strip. For moisture. But you know what happened next? Shut up, I'm telling you what happenedâ"the bastards went to four blades. Now we're standing around with our cocks in our hands, selling three blades and a strip. Moisture or no, suddenly we're the chumps. Well, fuck it. We're going to five blades.
Comment removed (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I may be wrong, Im not an astrologer (Score:5, Funny)
I may be wrong, Im not an astrologer...
If you ask an astrologer a question about the ocean, they'll probably want to know if you're a pisces.
Re: Uh, right. (Score:3, Funny)
I like it, occam's razor turbo:
"Of several acceptable explanations for a phenomenon, the simplest is preferable even when there's good evidence to suggest a more complex explanation and no evidence to suggest the simplest. Furthermore, that evidence is automatically invalidated by the first guy to yell out 'Occam's razor,' especially when the guy makes no attempt to explain himself."
Re:Could be... (Score:2, Funny)
So are you saying the ocean is a ferrous wheel?
Winds (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Could be... (Score:5, Funny)
Um, this is /. so I'm not sure "right-hand rule" always means what you think it does here. :-) I'm sure a lively debate could ensue on "science geek" vs. "lonely geek".
Re:Could be... (Score:4, Funny)
Lonely geek has moved on to the Fleshlight rule.
Especially when we keep crashing planes into them (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Uh, right. (Score:1, Funny)
Are you suggesting we remove all water to test this hypothesis?
Re:Polarity switch (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Polarity switch (Score:2, Funny)
though none of us will be around to find out.
Jesus will be.
Re:Polarity switch (Score:4, Funny)
I"m trying hard to make a joke about writing down when it happened and referring to that as reverse pole-ish notation, but... I think I'll let it go.
(I should probably post this anonymously, but hey - I stand by my bad puns!)
Re:Because someone has to respond to trolls (Score:3, Funny)
That's not consensus among climate scientists; that's consensus among feminists.
Re: overdue... for lunch (Score:3, Funny)
We're overdue now by several thousand years.
Not to sound ignorant, but why is it that we're overdue for:
We're overdue for everything, such that, I'm overdue for some coffee.
I know it's Monday morning: don't worry about being late.