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| Research Research for your story or poem. Ask about history, technology, language etc. |
06-28-2007, 09:27 PM
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#1
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Prolific Writer
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Los Angeles
Gender: Female
Posts: 462
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Science question about the sun for my fantasy novel.
This question is pretty science related, and I'm not much of a science kind of person. I was thinking about this today and I don't know where to go to get an answer. It might seem a little odd, but, well, let me stop yakking and get to the question:
If the sun were to rise in the west and set in the east, how would the earth be different? What would change about day and night, stars, moon, length of days/years, et cetera? Would anything be different? Or would it be the same, except the sun is backwards?
If anyone could direct me to a site or a book to find an answer for this question, I'd be much obliged.
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06-29-2007, 12:33 PM
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#2
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Member
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Phoenix
Posts: 8
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Interesting question. I would go to Discoverychannel.com and see if they've got anything there about this. i know they've been doing a lot on the solar system lately. You can also do AskJeeves.com
Hope that works out for you.
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06-29-2007, 05:08 PM
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#3
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Adept Writer
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Maine, USA
Gender: Male
Posts: 937
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Retrograde rotation. A good place to ask is at physicsforums.com
If you're meaning that this is the way the sun has always been in your story, then I don't see what that could possibly do. East vs West is arbitrary. We could switch that around all ourselves. The magnetic field shifts over time, and in fact at the moment our north magnetic pole is in the southern hemisphere. So it gets a little confusing depending on how you align or define your compass, what you base it on.
Look at the moon. The same side faces us all the time. Some planets don't have sunsets.
Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotation and look at the subsection on Astronomy. Also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retrogr...grade_rotation |
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06-29-2007, 05:32 PM
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#4
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Prolific Writer
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Los Angeles
Gender: Female
Posts: 462
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Wow, it's a lot more complicated than I thought at first. I never really thought about changing the compass or anything. I just thought up on my maps was north, south was down, etc. Now I guess I should figure out how a compass actually works... But anyway, thanks for the links. They're really helpful.
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06-29-2007, 05:59 PM
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#5
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pliable
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Juneau, Alaska
Posts: 12,607
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It wouldn't affect anything, really, except where we perceive the sun as setting and rising. That's really all.
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Science
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06-29-2007, 06:17 PM
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#6
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Prolific Writer
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 286
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The water in the toilet bowl would spin the other way when you flush.
Wait a minute, fantasy novel = no toilets. The water in the 'magical fountain' that the peasants all poo into would spin the other way.
CF
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