From: Jennifer Cline
Sent: Sun Dec 21 20:55:57 2014
To: J.W. Ring
Subject: Re: Happy Winter Solstice!
Importance: Normal
Pretty cool!
Sent from my iPhone
On Dec 21, 2014, at 8:16 PM, J.W. Ring <JWRing@ringbenderlaw.com> wrote:
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Just because I think you all need to know: (Science Lesson from a Lawyer…. And that is scary!!!)
Today, as you might already know, is the Winter Solstice. That means for people living in the Northern Hemisphere, it's the longest night of the year. Yes, for those of you in the Southern Hemisphere, this is boring…… sorry.
The Earth's rotation is gradually slowing on an extremely long timescale, but on a shorter year-to-year basis, geologic factors can alter the speed as well.
Dataindicates that the rotation speed has actually sped up slightly over the past forty years (likely due to melting of ice at the poles and the resulting redistribution of the Earth's mass), and before that, thetrend was up-and-down for most of the 20th century — so, as far as we know, the longest night in Earth's history likely occurred in 1912.
The main reason Earth's rotation is slowing down is the moon. Shortly after the formation of Earth, it was impacted by a planet-sized object. This enormous collision threw off the material that would eventually coalesce into the moon, and also sent Earth spinning quite rapidly.
In the four-plus billion years since, that spinning has slowed down pretty significantly (with an Earth day going from about six hours to 24 hours as a result) because of the moon's gravity.
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The moon's gravity pulls ocean water slightly toward and away from it, causing tides. But because of the alignment of the two bodies, the resulting bulge of water is slightly ahead of the spot on Earth that's directly under the moon.
As a result, the Earth encounters just a bit of friction from this bulge of water as it rotates, slowing it down slightly.
The phenomenon — called tidal acceleration — also allows the moon to drift slightly farther away from Earth over time. (It's also what's led the same face of the moon to always faces Earth as it rotates around us, and eventually, if things went on long enough, the same face of Earth would always face the moon as well, a phenomenon called tidal locking.)
There are a few other things that contribute to Earth's slowing down, but their contributions are minor. One is that the moon's gravity similarly causes Earth's crust to flex, like its water, leading to some friction as well.
Why winter solstice is the longest night of the year? I will tell you Earth Dwellers: The Earth orbits around the sun on a tilted axis, so sometimes, the Northern Hemisphere gets more exposure to sunlight over the course of a day, and sometimes, the Southern Hemisphere does. This is what accounts for the changing of the seasons.
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Every year, on December 21 or 22, this tilt means that locations in the Northern Hemisphere get the shortest duration of sunlight they'll get all year, so they experience the shortest day and longest night. On June 21 or 22, they get the longest days and shortest nights.
Meanwhile, everything is reversed for locations in the Southern Hemisphere — they have their longest days in December, and longest nights in June, but for the Aussies on this email, that is only one the many reasons you are all bonkers.
Tomorrow, the days start getting longer………. HERE is a CHEER to that!!!!!!
Jeff
J.W. Ring
Managing Partner
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Ring, Bender, McKown & Castillo
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