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Quotation

Storm in a Teacup

the Physics of Everyday Life
Next time you’re at or near an airport, take a look at the large signs at the start of each runway. Every runway around the world is labelled by a number, which is its direction in degrees from north, divided by ten. === The direction of the Earth’s magnetic field seemed to reverse every few hundred thousand years. It completely flipped, so that south became north and north became south. It didn’t seem to matter too much, but it was very odd. === Magnets are pushed past wires, and so movement energy is transferred into electrical current. The beauty of a wind turbine is that this is as raw as it gets; the wind turns magnets which generate current. In a coal-fired plant, water is heated to turn a steam turbine, which turns magnets.