The North Pole Has Moved An Inch

[+Circle of Confusion]

I'm not any kind of scientist, but since the GPS satellites are in orbit around the earth, wouldn't they move with it?

They wouldn't move with it since they are not physically connected.

They are held in place by the force of Earth's gravity, so it's reasonable to assume that if the earth moves, the satellites move with it....

You are right they orbit because of the gravity. The catch is you have to move the gravity. If you rotate the planet an inch, did you move the pull of gravity?

 

Now if you moved the earth an inch over to the left... But that doesn't have to move the location of the north pole.

 

The tweak in the earths wobble does move the mass/gravity well/whaever you want to call it so the chanbe wobble if pronounced enough might cause a slight tweak to the satalites orbit.

If the Pole moved an inch to the left, just hold your GPS an inch more to the left than you normally do.

 

On the more serious side...

 

Now I'm not rocket scientist, but the Eath is always moving. The Earth moves around the sun; the sun moves around our galaxy: the Galaxy is moving through the Universe. We are all travelling at thousands of miles a second. (Therefor you all deserve speeding tickets)

 

The force of gravity on the satalites is constanly changing. For instance we pass by Jupiter or the moon and the tides change. These satalites maintain their orbits/speed/direction/altitude by self-correcting their path constantly.

 

Just my 2 cents

[+Alan2]

Some thoughts that have been bothering me:

 

1. What's an inch? Since the True North Pole sits on top of an ice flow, how to they know where to keep moving the north pole post? And who is the guy who does it? Why does he do it? And what do they pay him? And who pays?

 

2. So what's an inch - part II. Since magnetic North Pole moves more than an inch regularly and in greater leaps than the worse earthquakes, why make big deal out of an inch?

 

3. The satellites are not in stationary geoconcentric orbit. So they don't associate with any one spot on earth anyway. I'm not sure of my point, or the questions it raise, so I'll let you flesh out my point(s).

[+Circle of Confusion]

2. So what's an inch - part II. Since magnetic North Pole moves more than an inch regularly and in greater leaps than the worse earthquakes, why make big deal out of an inch?

 

That is so some scientist show off, by saying

"I punched in some numbers in my expencive computer (aka big calculator) and my best guess is that the earths axis may or may not have moved by aproximetly one inch. But since you can never measure it and it will have absolutely no impact on your life, you will never know for sure. Now art you glad you pay me $100,000 a year so I can tell you that."

[gridlox]

1 inch, huh?

 

I doubt it is that big a deal, UNLESS....

 

You also fish or are a male that frequents night spots for a bedroom companion.

 

Then 1 inch may actually mean a great deal!!

 

In both cases, 1 inch is usually a little loooonger than a "standard" 1 inch!!

 

D-man

[+shunra]

What's an inch? Since the True North Pole sits on top of an ice flow, how to they know where to keep moving the north pole post? And who is the guy who does it? Why does he do it? And what do they pay him? And who pays?

There is currently some uncertainty as to whether it's a mystery pole, a virtual pole or a locationless pole.

 

As to who pays - the taxpayer, of course.

[Prof. Y. Lupardi]

The North Pole moved. But what about the South Pole? Did it also move in opposite direction?

Because the defintion of the poles being:where the axis is or where the whole earth rotates about, I would expect that to happen. Or the earth is wobbling now!

So who is going to replace the South Pole marker? Any pictures of this happening yet?

[+sept1c_tank]

I reckon the true north pole is somewhere under the ice on terra firma. That means a legendary expedition, that of Matthew Henson and Edwin Peary in the discovery of the North Pole in 1909, was a DNF.

 

That means FTF is still up for grabs.

 

If the north pole moves and the south pole doesn't, an inch won't matter much longer.

[+nfa]

Don't worry about it guys, I moved it back...it wasn't really the tsunami, I just bumped the North Pole while I was looking for my car keys and was afraid to admit it at first...

 

sorry for any inconvenience...

 

nfa-jamie

[+Rakusan]

See, I've been telling you guys geodesy was important!

[+The Puzzler]

So who is going to replace the South Pole marker? Any pictures of this happening yet?

A new south pole marker is actually placed every austral summer with a great deal of pomp and ceremony by the few people involved. I am not certain of the details, but I believe the surface is a glacier that moves a few meters a year. I've seen a picture somewhere of the line of south pole markers from the current one to several years in the past off in the distance.

[Mushtang]

The force of gravity on the satalites is constanly changing. For instance we pass by Jupiter or the moon and the tides change. These satalites maintain their orbits/speed/direction/altitude by self-correcting their path constantly.

 

Just my 2 cents

Oh my. There's so many things wrong with this I'm just hoping it was an attempt at humor. But something makes me think not.