Unexplained and interesting facts about the earth. Magnetic field theory and interesting facts about the earth's magnetic field 10 interesting facts about the earth's magnetic field
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Earth - Interesting Facts about the third planet solar system. Explore the description of the 10 most amazing facts about a planet with life with high quality photos.
Planet Earth! This beautiful blue ball of the solar system, which has fascinated mankind for many millennia. Why not? This is so far the only planet that can boast of life, and intelligent.
We have been exploring our home planet for a long time. But how well do we really know her? in front of you 10 interesting facts about planet earth, which are suitable for children and adults, and will help to take a fresh look at the familiar environment.
Interesting facts about planet Earth
Earth alone has tectonic activity. The earth's crust is divided into parts - tectonic plates. They move through the magma and may occasionally collide. Upon impact, a new bark is formed.
This is an important process for the planet, which not only ensures tectonic activity (eruptions, formation of oceanic trenches), but also participates in the carbon cycle. For a long time, the carbon-rich dead remains sink deeper below the surface and are recycled. Thanks to this, we do not suffer from the greenhouse effect.
Many believe that our planet formed in the form of a sphere. To be more precise, it is a flattened sphere, namely a spheroid. It practically corresponds to the shape, but is wider in the equatorial line. The reason is the axis of rotation of the Earth, due to which the coverage at the poles is 43 km inferior to the equatorial one.
If we examine the composition of our planet, we will get iron (32.1%), oxygen (30.1%), silicon (15.1%) and magnesium (13.9%). If we got to the core, we would stumble upon 88% iron, and in earth's crust 47% oxygen is present.
For the first time, a person managed to look at the Earth live from space only when entering orbit. It was after this that the planet began to be called the "blue dot". Let's not forget that 70% of the territory is allotted for water and only 30% is solid crust raised above sea level.
The atmosphere stretches for 10,000 km
It is considered dense for the first 50 km, but actually covers 10,000 km in height. It is divided into troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere and exosphere. The higher you climb, the lower the pressure and density readings.
Approximately 75% of the entire atmospheric layer is present at altitudes up to 11 km. The exosphere (highest) extends from 700 km to 10,000 km. There it merges with space. It is mainly represented by low density hydrogen, helium and a couple of heavy molecules (oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide). Atoms and molecules are dispersed so far that the exosphere no longer behaves like a gas, and the particles move away into space.
The nucleus forms a magnetic field
Read interesting facts about the Earth so as not to forget that our planet is a giant magnet with poles. The magnetic field stretches for thousands of kilometers and creates a magnetosphere. The researchers believe that it is formed by the molten outer core, whose heat leads to the convection of the movement of materials to generate electrical currents.
It is worth thanking for the magnetosphere, otherwise the solar particles would shower our planet, and we would die from a huge amount of radiation.
Axial rotation does not equal 24 hours
To be more precise, the Earth's axis of rotation takes 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds. This revolution is called a sidereal day. Then it turns out that every day is 4 minutes shorter? No, because our planet revolves around the sun. Every day the star will mix by 1° compared to the background. We add this movement and get our usual 24 hours. It's a sunny day.
A year does not equal 365 days
And again, a clarification: a year on Earth = 365.2564 days. It is the extra 0.2564 days that leads to the fact that every 4 years we get an extra day in February.
Moon and two orbiting satellites
We all know that the Earth is not alone, as a faithful satellite always rotates nearby. But we also have two tethered asteroids: 3753 Cruitney and 2022 AA29.
3753 Cruitney extends for 5 km and is referred to as the second moon. In fact, it does not make revolutions around us, because it is tuned to a synchronized orbit with the planet. 2002 AA29 spans 60m and orbits along a horseshoe-like orbit, causing it to approach us every 95 years.
The only living planet
We were able to find evidence of life in the past on Mars and Titan (a moon of Saturn). Even in deep space there are amino acids. But developed forms are present only on our planet. Of course, we do not give up and continue to look beyond our system.
Our telescopes are scanning exoplanets and finding options that are waiting to be explored. Let's not forget the launch of the new generation James Webb telescope, which is expected in 2018.
The science
Scientists from European Space Agency(ESA) stated that, according to data, The magnetic field of our planet began to weaken at an extraordinary rate..
Measurements taken by the Swarm satellite, which consists of three spacecraft, indicate that at present, the field is weakening 10 times faster than usual.
The Earth's magnetic field is a huge bubble, which, although invisible to the naked eye, plays an important role protecting the Earth from the merciless solar radiation.
Earth's magnetic field
The magnetic field exists because the Earth has a huge iron core surrounded by an outer layer of molten metal. Changes in core temperature and the Earth's rotation churn the outer crust, creating magnetic lines of force.
The movement of the molten metal causes some areas of the magnetic field to get stronger and others to get weaker.
According to scientists, the Earth's magnetic field extends over a distance of about 600,000 km and is constantly subject to change. However, researchers are puzzled by how quickly these changes began to occur in our time.
Shades of red show where the magnetic field is getting stronger, and blue where it's getting weaker.
Previously, the magnetic field weakened by about 5 percent per century. Now this figure is 5 percent per decade.
In addition, the data indicate that the weakest point is the western hemisphere, while other areas, including the southern Indian Ocean, have intensified.
Earth's magnetic poles
Scientists from the ESA believe that the weakening of the Earth's magnetic field is due to the fact that Earth's magnetic poles are about to reverse as a result of changes in the Earth's core.
It is believed that magnetic North Pole shifts to Siberia, and then moves even further.
However, such a reversal of magnetic poles has occurred many times over the course of history, so scientists assure that there is no cause for concern. Such a change does not occur instantly, but may take hundreds or even thousands of years.
There is no evidence that this can lead to the apocalypse. There has been no mass extinction or radiation damage during past magnetic pole shifts. Communication systems and power grids can suffer the most.
Earth is the only planet known to us that can be safely called inhabited. Today, this is the defining moment that distinguishes our space house from similar objects. However, interesting facts about the Earth are just beginning with him. Despite the fact that the answers to many of the secrets of the planet are literally under our feet and above our heads, scientists still cannot explain a lot. On the other hand, among the accumulated information there are sometimes more amazing facts than other deep space events.
Things of bygone days
For the distant ancestors of any nation, everything on Earth was evidence of the presence of supernatural forces: gods, spirits, fairies and sorceresses. However, even in the epoch most remote from us in time, inquisitive minds were discovered who sought to explain what was happening differently. They found patterns, learned to predict certain phenomena, created theories about the structure of the world. The myth of the Earth resting on the backs of huge animals, which arose in the course of such attempts to understand the surrounding nature, is unusually tenacious. It is still found, for example, among the Indians. According to their model of the universe, the Earth rests on the back of a turtle and shudders every time it takes a step.
Trembling of the earth
Of course, such an explanation of earthquakes does not satisfy scientists. Today, almost everyone knows that the cause of this phenomenon is movement and collision. tectonic plates. However, there are many facts associated with earthquakes that are not known to the majority, and some of them still remain inexplicable.
Interesting facts about the Earth include, for example, the following statistics:
- annually around the world there are about 500 thousand earthquakes, and every day their number reaches 8 thousand, but most of them are imperceptible;
- noticeable to humans occur about 55 thousand times a year;
- earthquakes that bring destruction and have a magnitude of 5 to 8.9 points occur no more than 1000 times a year;
- the most catastrophic in their consequences, fortunately, are very rare - about once every 20 years.
Interestingly, the complete disappearance of earthquakes, as well as volcanic activity, will mean the cessation of tectonic activity. This is possible after the completion of all processes that take place in the bowels. Oddly enough, this is very undesirable for a person, since it is a sign of the end of the differentiation of the bowels, and hence the loss of the Earth's main source of energy that "warms up" it. We can say that earthquakes are a sign of the life of the planet.
Strange outbreaks
There are absolutely unusual facts about the Earth, associated with the shaking of the firmament. According to many eyewitnesses, such phenomena are accompanied not only by destruction and shocks, but also by bright flashes. Italian physicist Christiano Feruga collected a large number of references to such phenomena, covering many sources up to 2000. However, scientists paid attention to this evidence only after the publication of photographs taken during the earthquake in 1966 in Japan.
Today, there are already many such images. Sometimes it is quite difficult to understand whether it is a fake or not. However, no explanation for the phenomenon has yet been found.
supercontinent
The cause of volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and mountain building lies in the movements of tectonic plates. It also leads to what scientists call continental drift. Thanks to this process, interesting facts about the Earth are supplemented by information about the existence of several supercontinents in the distant past, which broke up and “gathered” again after a while, but in a slightly different configuration. The last of them is called Pangea. However, the most interesting thing about the Earth in this perspective is that the process continues at the present time. every year they overcome a distance of several centimeters, that is, in the future, after about 250 million years, a new single continent will form.
moving stones
What the movement of tectonic plates does not explain is the changing position of strange rocks in California's famous Death Valley. They are on the surface of a dried-up lake and leave clear traces, slowly moving along it. Numerous studies and observations have given small results - scientists are still unable to explain. It is only known that in 7 years they overcome about 200 m, but no one has ever seen how they move. The greatest "activity" of stones falls on the winter period.
Miracles are near
Unusual stones are also found in Kolpnyansky. They periodically begin to grow, like seedlings. Some locals treat the boulders as sacred. It is believed that touching them bestows strength and health.
Earth's magnetic field: interesting facts
If you look at the photo of the stones from the Death Valley, it may seem that something is attracting them. Involuntarily, it is remembered that our planet is a kind of huge magnet. It is interesting that the occurrence of the Earth's magnetic field also belongs to the category of facts without an unambiguous scientific explanation. The main hypothesis says that it is generated by the liquid part of the core, which consists of alloys of iron and nickel. However, such a hypothesis cannot explain all the facts.
The researchers found that cooling lava can tell about the direction and strength of the magnetic field. Its samples of different times were studied. It turned out that the strength of the field in some periods of the planet's history significantly decreased. This fact, as well as the dependence of the field on is explained by another hypothesis of the origin of the planet's magnetism. According to her, the water-air ocean plays the main role in the process. Water, evaporating, becomes electrified and receives a positive charge. At the same time, negative ions accumulate in the earth. Due to the rotation of the planet, a stream of charged particles is formed, that is, in fact, a current. And, as is known from school course physics, where electricity, there is a magnetic field.
The work of human hands
Many incredible facts about the Earth owe their appearance to people. Unfortunately, quite often they have a negative connotation. There are also cases in history when the decision of a small group of people led to rather strong changes in the landscape. An impressive example of this is the Gates of Hell in Turkmenistan. It is a deep chasm in which the flames rage. Approximately 35 years ago, gas was developed here. In the process of mining, the site on which the camp of geologists was located collapsed into a deep cave. There were no people who wanted to go down for things, since the whole hole that had formed was filled natural gas. They set him on fire. It is still burning, and it is not known when this man-made miracle will cease to please and frighten the locals.
Interesting facts about the Earth can be listed endlessly. With the development of science, an explanation of everything appears. more mystical phenomena and simply strange natural processes. At the same time, research contributes to a treasury of curious information: every year, scientists discover something new, the existence of which they had no idea.
Magnet and magnetism never cease to amaze mankind. We have compiled some interesting facts about permanent magnets that you may not know yet.
1. Why was the magnet called a magnet?
There are two versions of the origin of this name: poetic and not very. The first is the poetic legend of a shepherd named Magnus (or Magnes). The famous historian Pliny described that one day this shepherd wandered with his sheep to a new place, stood on an unusual black stone and suddenly found that he could not tear his staff and his nailed shoes from it.
It is more likely that everything was more prosaic: once in the Greek region of Magnesia, deposits of a stone capable of attracting iron were discovered. They called it that - “stone from Magnesia” or, more simply, a magnet. However, there is also a bit of poetry here, because the region got its name from the Magnet tribe living in it, and they named themselves that way in honor of the mythical hero, the son of Zeus.
2. Meet the "Loving Stone"
It was this romantic name that the inventive Chinese gave the magnet. Representatives of one of the oldest cultures poetically described it as follows. Tsy-shi (in Russian “loving stone” or “stone of motherly love”), they said, attracts iron, just like a warm mother attracts children. This force actually extends to other metals, but less intensely.
Interestingly, the French also called the magnet the word "loving" - for both meanings, the same word aimant is used.
3. How did the magnetic board
In 2008, three American students demonstrated their knowledge, but they did not have enough space on the board to show all the necessary information, they decided to additionally use large format sheets, but the difficulty was that the paper had to be held in their hands. And then they came up with a brilliant idea to make part of the board with a magnetic surface. So there was a new technology for coating the surface for drawing with markers that are easily erased with a dry sponge. Such markers are called dry erase.
4. Who invented the first magnetic compass?
Back in the third century BC, a Chinese author described a compass in the form of a magnet spoon, but a device with a floating arrow appeared only in the 11th century. Much later, in 1300, John Giras was the first in Europe to create a compass for travelers (the magnet was brought just 40 years earlier by the traveler Marco Polo), which greatly simplified the life of sailors. And the Italian Flavio Joya improved the design.
5. A little about the magnetic storm
There are days when the compass needle spins erratically instead of pointing north. Sometimes this goes on for hours, and sometimes for days. Most of all, the compass is used by sailors - they were the first to note this phenomenon, christening it a magnetic storm.
This happens due to solar flares, when more charged particles from the Sun enter the magnetic field of our planet. It is indignant, and geomagnetic storms begin, affecting both the human body and the operation of technology.
6. How to see the magnetic field?
Seeing a magnetic field is quite real, and this is taught in school lessons physics, offering the following sequence of actions:
- the magnet is covered with a glass plate;
- a sheet of paper is placed on top of the plate;
- the paper is sprinkled with an even layer of iron filings;
- the filings are magnetized, and when they are shaken, they are momentarily separated from the plate, and easily turn, forming - complex curved lines diverging from the poles.
The resulting picture looks like this: the closer to the pole, the thicker and clearer the lines of sawdust, and the farther they go, the more rarefied and lose their distinctness. it good example how magnetic forces are weakened by distance.
7. Why is the coffin of the Prophet Muhammad hanging in the air?
For more than one century, inquisitive minds were excited by the story of the levitating coffin of the prophet Mohammed. In 1600, a book about magnets was published, where the author William Gilbert conveyed the story he had heard about the Mahomet chapel. Its vault contains magnetic stones of great strength, which allow the iron chest with the ashes of the prophet to hang in the air.
The Muslims themselves considered this a miracle, and said that the reason was that the earth could not bear the corpse of such a person. In fact, some magicians have done such tricks before. But it must be said that maintaining a balance in this case impossible. The magnet in this case is strong enough to lift the object, but it will not work to keep it at a stable distance without an additional thread.
8. Magnet and heating
Magnets have special characteristics. These include the operating temperature with maximum performance and the Curie point, at which ferromagnets lose their properties. For each alloy, these parameters are individual. For example, for magnetoplasts based on NdFeB filler, the maximum operating temperature can be up to 120 or even 220°C, while ferrites can withstand operation at temperatures up to 250-300°C, and their Curie point is 450°C.
9. Why does a magnetic tomograph see a person from the inside?
Our body consists of 60-80% H2O, and hydrogen atoms in the formula of water, under the action of a powerful magnet, begin to radiate waves. They are different because they depend on the tissues where the atoms are located, and reflect any change in our body. A person placed in a magnetic field radiates these waves, and the recorded indicators are transformed into a three-color image.
10. How does the magnetic pad work?
High-speed movement of trains of the "Maglev" type is achieved thanks to the following technology. The cars are attached to the guide, which covers the rail, or vice versa. In both versions, the cars are kept above the rail due to the vertical magnetic field, while the horizontal one maintains alignment. Electromagnets are also placed on the rail, with which the operation of the engines is ensured - this is how acceleration and braking occur.
11. Peter Peregrine and the Magnet Message
In the second half of the 13th century, a certain Pierre Peregrin de Marricourt wrote a treatise letter to a friend, in which he spoke in detail about the properties of a magnet and even suggested using it as a perpetual motion machine (then this idea was popular in France, in the scientist’s homeland). Almost nothing is known about the author, but his contribution for the first systematic study in Europe is highly valued even today.
The treatise talks about the presence of poles in the spherical samples that were used, the magnetization procedure, the interaction of magnets and many other points related to the properties of magnets. Marricourt was sure that the stone he was examining contained a semblance celestial sphere with its poles.
Let's understand together what a magnetic field is. After all, many people live in this field all their lives and do not even think about it. Time to fix it!
A magnetic field
A magnetic field is a special kind of matter. It manifests itself in the action on moving electric charges and bodies that have their own magnetic moment (permanent magnets).
Important: a magnetic field does not act on stationary charges! A magnetic field is also created by moving electric charges, or by a time-varying electric field, or by the magnetic moments of electrons in atoms. That is, any wire through which current flows also becomes a magnet!
A body that has its own magnetic field.
A magnet has poles called north and south. The designations "northern" and "southern" are given only for convenience (as "plus" and "minus" in electricity).
The magnetic field is represented by force magnetic lines. The lines of force are continuous and closed, and their direction always coincides with the direction of the field forces. If metal chips are scattered around a permanent magnet, the metal particles will show a clear picture. lines of force magnetic field coming out of the north and entering the south pole. Graphical characteristic of the magnetic field - lines of force.
Magnetic field characteristics
The main characteristics of the magnetic field are magnetic induction, magnetic flux and magnetic permeability. But let's talk about everything in order.
Immediately, we note that all units of measurement are given in the system SI.
Magnetic induction B - vector physical quantity, which is the main power characteristic of the magnetic field. Denoted by letter B . The unit of measurement of magnetic induction - Tesla (Tl).
Magnetic induction indicates how strong a field is by determining the force with which it acts on a charge. Given power called Lorentz force.
Here q - charge, v - its speed in a magnetic field, B - induction, F is the Lorentz force with which the field acts on the charge.
F- a physical quantity equal to the product of magnetic induction by the area of the contour and the cosine between the induction vector and the normal to the plane of the contour through which the flow passes. Magnetic flux is a scalar characteristic of a magnetic field.
We can say that the magnetic flux characterizes the number of magnetic induction lines penetrating a unit area. The magnetic flux is measured in Weberach (WB).
Magnetic permeability is the coefficient that determines the magnetic properties of the medium. One of the parameters on which the magnetic induction of the field depends is the magnetic permeability.
Our planet has been a huge magnet for several billion years. The induction of the Earth's magnetic field varies depending on the coordinates. At the equator, it is about 3.1 times 10 to the minus fifth power of Tesla. In addition, there are magnetic anomalies, where the value and direction of the field differ significantly from neighboring areas. One of the largest magnetic anomalies on the planet - Kursk and Brazilian magnetic anomaly.
The origin of the Earth's magnetic field is still a mystery to scientists. It is assumed that the source of the field is the liquid metal core of the Earth. The core is moving, which means that the molten iron-nickel alloy is moving, and the movement of charged particles is the electric current that generates the magnetic field. The problem is that this theory geodynamo) does not explain how the field is kept stable.
The earth is a huge magnetic dipole. The magnetic poles do not coincide with the geographic ones, although they are in close proximity. Moreover, the Earth's magnetic poles are moving. Their displacement has been recorded since 1885. For example, over the past hundred years, the magnetic pole in the Southern Hemisphere has shifted by almost 900 kilometers and is now in the Southern Ocean. The pole of the Arctic hemisphere is moving across the Arctic Ocean towards the East Siberian magnetic anomaly, the speed of its movement (according to 2004 data) was about 60 kilometers per year. Now there is an acceleration of the movement of the poles - on average, the speed is growing by 3 kilometers per year.
What is the significance of the Earth's magnetic field for us? First of all, the Earth's magnetic field protects the planet from cosmic rays and the solar wind. Charged particles from deep space do not fall directly to the ground, but are deflected by a giant magnet and move along its lines of force. Thus, all living things are protected from harmful radiation.
During the history of the Earth, there have been several inversions(changes) of magnetic poles. Pole inversion is when they change places. The last time this phenomenon occurred about 800 thousand years ago, and there were more than 400 geomagnetic reversals in the history of the Earth. Some scientists believe that, given the observed acceleration of the movement of the magnetic poles, the next pole reversal should be expected in the next couple of thousand years.
Fortunately, no reversal of poles is expected in our century. So, you can think about the pleasant and enjoy life in the good old constant field of the Earth, having considered the main properties and characteristics of the magnetic field. And so that you can do this, there are our authors, who can be entrusted with some of the educational troubles with confidence in success! Coursework international and national law and other types of work you can order here.
