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Did Vikings navigate by polarized light?
Nature ^
| 31 Jan 2011
| Jo Marchant
Posted on 01/31/2011 8:30:21 PM PST by Palter
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1
posted on
01/31/2011 8:30:26 PM PST
by
Palter
To: SunkenCiv
2
posted on
01/31/2011 8:31:04 PM PST
by
Palter
(If voting made any difference they wouldn't let us do it. ~ Mark Twain)
To: Palter
3
posted on
01/31/2011 8:35:01 PM PST
by
GeronL
(http://www.stink-eye.net/forum/index.php)
To: Palter
The Vikings: Hell’s Angels with boats.
4
posted on
01/31/2011 8:40:25 PM PST
by
Kenny Bunk
(America might survive Obama. It cannot survive those who vote for him)
To: Palter
Wow, I am not understanding this AT ALL. looking through a polarized lens at a cloudy sky will tell you NOTHING. I’m assuming looking through a polarizing crystal gives the same effect.
5
posted on
01/31/2011 8:41:55 PM PST
by
mamelukesabre
(Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum (If you want peace prepare for war))
To: Kenny Bunk
Rolf the Granger killed a guy, because his family was in good with the Queen he got exiled instead of killed.
He got some rough customers together and took over “Normandy”, it wasn’t the land of the Northmen until Rolf.
From Normandy they took England, Sicily, Southern Italy, the Crusader Kingdom of Antioch, and twice came within one battle of taking the largest empire of the day, the Byzantines.
6
posted on
01/31/2011 8:46:00 PM PST
by
allmendream
(Tea Party did not send the GOP to D.C. to negotiate the terms of our surrender to socialism.)
To: Palter
How many of you can see
Haidinger's Brush? I read about this years ago in Scientific American, and went outside and saw it right away. It is very distinct on a clear late afternoon with a deep blue sky. I can check for its objectivity by looking straight up and turning around, which causes the hourglass shape of the "brush" to rotate in my field of view.
7
posted on
01/31/2011 8:57:46 PM PST
by
dr_lew
To: Palter
If there’s a Viking ping list... I’d love to be on it.
8
posted on
01/31/2011 9:04:00 PM PST
by
Ramius
(Personally, I give us... one chance in three. More tea?)
To: mamelukesabre
No, this makes sense. And it is very clever.
9
posted on
01/31/2011 9:04:39 PM PST
by
Kirkwood
(Zombie Hunter)
To: allmendream
From Normandy they took England, Sicily, Southern Italy, the Crusader Kingdom of Antioch, and twice came within one battle of taking the largest empire of the day, the Byzantines.All this on a diet of lutefisk! But they did hang out around Normandie for a while, enjoying French cuisine, washed down with Calvados, before setting out for England, Italy and points East.
10
posted on
01/31/2011 9:21:15 PM PST
by
Kenny Bunk
(America might survive Obama. It cannot survive those who vote for him)
To: Palter
I wonder about something here...
I wonder if what they mean by a “sunstone” isn’t an artificial horizon. In the world of celestial navigation, it’s not the stars or the sun or moon that are hard to find in the sky. The problem was that there was no clear horizon to measure them against, due to haze, clouds, or light conditions.
What was developed was the “artificial horizon”. One of the first iterations of this was a broad bowl full of liquid mercury. A large of pool of mercury, even on a ship that is leaning and tipping with the wind, will still be a quite level mirror of the sky. If you measure the angle of star in the sky against its reflection in a pool of mercury, and divide the angle by half... you have a good angle of that star above the horizon even if you don’t have a clear horizon.
11
posted on
01/31/2011 9:27:14 PM PST
by
Ramius
(Personally, I give us... one chance in three. More tea?)
To: Palter
12
posted on
01/31/2011 9:31:49 PM PST
by
blam
To: Kenny Bunk
Indeed. Most of the Normans who went on the first Crusade with Tancred and Bohemund grew up in Italy.
The Duke of Normandy Robert Curthose had to hock Normandy to William King of England his brother to afford to go on the first Crusade.
13
posted on
01/31/2011 9:36:54 PM PST
by
allmendream
(Tea Party did not send the GOP to D.C. to negotiate the terms of our surrender to socialism.)
To: allmendream
But the first Crusade was one of the more effective....
14
posted on
01/31/2011 10:05:40 PM PST
by
Ramius
(Personally, I give us... one chance in three. More tea?)
To: Palter
This is nothing new. It was reported years ago. The Vikings used a naturally birefringent crystal that polarized the light coming through it. You can do the same thing now with a polarizing filter. If you have one for your camera, give it a try on a cloudy day.
15
posted on
01/31/2011 11:18:06 PM PST
by
JoeFromSidney
(New book: RESISTANCE TO TYRANNY. A primer on armed revolt. Available form Amazon.)
To: muawiyah
To: mamelukesabre
17
posted on
02/01/2011 4:15:45 AM PST
by
Oztrich Boy
(History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce - Karl Marx)
To: allmendream
I have always blamed the Normans for not finishing the damn Crusades properly. The entire region would be better off if the present King of Spain, who is the legitimate heir to the Crusader kingdom, were in charge.
And where are the Normans now that we need them to sort the bloody pagans out again? Looking down their long noses as they putter about England, France and Italy? No wonder the world is such a mess. Time to go a-Viking, boys!
18
posted on
02/01/2011 6:33:08 AM PST
by
Kenny Bunk
(America might survive Obama. It cannot survive those who vote for him)
To: Palter; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; 31R1O; ..
19
posted on
02/01/2011 4:11:18 PM PST
by
SunkenCiv
(The 2nd Amendment follows right behind the 1st because some people are hard of hearing.)
To: Palter; SunkenCiv
Awesome stuff! Thanks, SC!
20
posted on
02/01/2011 4:25:46 PM PST
by
Monkey Face
(Seen on the marquis of local bar and grill: Grave Happy Hour! 4:00 - 7:00 AM)
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