If I go to Hudson Bay, will I weigh less?

 I don’t know, but an interesting program on PBS stirred my curiosity about gravity. I found a great article on “How can parts of Canada be missing gravity?” It talked about the convection of the mantle and how the tectonic plates help fuel the molten mass of the Earth’s core which lowers the mass of an area. But what I found most interesting was that the Laurentide Ice Sheet compressed the Hudson Bay area with an ice sheet that was over 2 miles thick. It quite literally squished earth out to the sides. Even though the earth is rebounding at about ½ inch a year, it will take around 5,000 years for the crust to spring back fully from the 650 feet it was compressed. Since gravity is proportional to mass, and the earth has been pushed aside, there is less mass, hence there is less gravity. Whoa!

That led me to another article in the July/August 2013 Discover magazine. On the very last page, it has “20 Thing You Didn’t Know About Gravity” by Bill Andrews. Gravity is the “weakest of the four fundamental forces” (Andrews, 2013, 96). A small magnet is more powerful than gravity, that’s why I can stick things to my fridge. And there is no “zero gravity”! It all has to do with falling at the same rate as the environment around you. Mass, which has gravity, warps space-time. It distorts the fabric of the Universe and, depending on the mass, can distort light.  Now this makes for some interesting science fiction plots!

Quantum mechanics has changed science in the last 10 years. But what I didn’t know was that gravity doesn’t fit into the equation. Just when we think we have a handle on the science of the cosmos, gravity mucks it up. And Don, did you know that when either of us moves, we create gravitational waves? Exactly what that means is far beyond my neophyte mind. I got lost with the explanation on why a magnet is stronger than gravity.

My editors and readers got back to me about my newest Tracker story. Not bad, but as one editor/mentor said, the characters aren’t suffering enough to grow – kill someone off. What? Oh, and the cat partner Tren is “god like” – make him fallible. It’s been a long couple of days of rewriting. I’ve got most of it done, and the character to kill off bravely stood up and announced he was the one to go. That I had other plans for him in another story didn’t seem to matter. All I have left to do is clean up the consequences. I have to admit, I’m not really that sorry to see the character go – he was getting on my nerves. As for Tren being “god like”, I’m toning it down a bit – but I still want the miracle of the team to be established as I have several episodes where “god like” won’t be good enough. Can’t wait to get started on the next story! And yes, gravity will be important in one of the upcoming episodes! Curiosity and writing – what a way to go!

Riddle Cave! And it is dark in here this week. Don, I’ve thought about mosquitoes, empty plastic bags, (one is caught in the high branches of one of our trees), but I’ve not hit on the exact solution. Capturing life’s essence and rolling away in a bumpy fashion just don’t seem to work together for anything I’ve thought of. Uncle!

For you:

Found deep in forests, back yards and decks

Laden with delight for the pallet

Sturdy enough for multiple elbows

Birth place of splinters

 

Have a great week everyone!

Carolyn

 

 

Reference:

Andrews, B. (Ju/Aug 2013). 20 things you didn’t know about gravity. Discover: Science, Technology, and the Future.

All figures retrieved from Google Images

Fig. 1 – Young woman weighing herself retrieved from www.illustrationsource.com

Fig. 2 – Gravity Wells  5181XP7mnFL._SL175_.jpg retrieved from www.audible.com

Fig. 3 – How does zero gravity work? / eHow retrieved from www.eHow.com

Fig. 4 – Why can’t anything go faster than the speed of? Retrieved from zidbits.com

Fig. 5 – Why were cats the main animals in Egypt? Retrieved from pets.thenest.com