Here is a question to test Cecil’s mettle. This ain’t “what caused the big bang?” but close enough. How come the Chandler wobble hasn’t dampened out? –R.M. Mentock, via the Internet
The Chandler wobble is but one of several wobbles of the earth’s axis. The most important is precession, which has a cycle of 25,800 years due to variations in the pull of the moon and sun. Because of precession, the star Vega will replace Polaris as the North Star many millennia from now, a fact to keep in mind if you’re planning to navigate by the stars in 14,000 AD. There’s also nutation, an aggregation of sub-wobbles within the larger precessionary wobble, the most significant of which has a period of 18.6 years and results from variations in the distance of the moon.
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Q: Who is monitoring the Chandler wobble?
Q: Take a stab in English.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): illustration/Slug Signorino.
