Date: Sat, 23 Mar 2002 08:12:43 -0500
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
From: Candy Madigan <candymadigan at mindspring.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: the earth's tilt
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

The conversation I was in was about recent weather changes.  I somehow
think that we'd have noticed if the earth suddenly changed it's
tilt.  Heck, even if you and I didn't, the scientists would.

At 02:15 AM 03/23/2002 -0500, you wrote:

>On Fri, 22 Mar 2002 19:06:35 -0500 Candy Madigan
><candymadigan at mindspring.com> writes:
> > I was JUST involved in a conversation about whether the earths tilt
> > was
> > changing and that was an explanation for the 'strange weather' that
> > we've
> > been getting.  I rejected that hypothesis based on the fact that the
> >
> > soltices/equinoxes are still coming when predicted.
> >
>
>The earth's tilt (the obliquity of the ecliptic) does change over time.
>It wanders back and forth between two extremes which are only a couple of
>degrees apart.  The obliquity of the ecliptic is the angle made by the
>plane of the earth's equator with plane in which the earth orbits.  The
>effect, I think, is mainly that seasonal weather differences would be
>greater when the tilt is greater, and less when the tilt is less.  But
>the tilt changes so slowly that for centuries it has remained mighty
>close to today's 23 1/2 degrees.  The tilt controls what the latitudes of
>the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn will be, and the latitudes of the
>Arctic and Antarctic Cirles.  At this time, the tropics are 23 1/2
>degrees from the equator, and the Arctic and Antarctic Circles are 23 1/2
>degrees from each of the respective rotation poles.
>
>Ron Kean