The Wonders of the Solar System...

Splottboy
Splottboy Posts: 3,695
edited March 2010 in The bottom bracket
Just on BBC 2, presented by the ever smirking - to me - Prof Brian Cox.

Describing how the Solar System sprang into life, he mentioned the "Clockwork" action of the planets formation.

So, here's my Question; It looks as though nearly ALL the Planets circle the Sun Anti-Clockwise. ( I'm not sure which way each Planet rotates though..)

Therefore, Why do our Clocks run "clockwise" when the Ancients knew this, but the later invented time keeping machines - clocks - run the opposite direction?

( I think that there is one Planet that circles the Sun clockwise but... Which one? )

Comments

  • sungod
    sungod Posts: 17,355
    clock dials evolved from sundials, the shadow on the sundial moves 'clockwise'

    but if the earth span the other way, then the shadow would move in the other direction, which would still have been clockwise, it's just a convention for the way a clock/sundial goes

    he does smirk doesn't he!
    my bike - faster than god's and twice as shiny
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    Dunno, maybe you should ask Tullio Campagnolo
  • Splottboy
    Splottboy Posts: 3,695
    Sungod, you ARE A GOD, to me anyway!
    Thanks, butty!
  • El Gordo
    El Gordo Posts: 394
    Splottboy wrote:
    It looks as though nearly ALL the Planets circle the Sun Anti-Clockwise.

    Doesn't that depend on whether you are looking from the 'top' or the 'bottom' (which are meaningless as far as the universe is concerned)?

    Prof Cox may be a bit smirky but he is nowhere near as annoying as that patronising Scottish geography bloke.
  • Cressers
    Cressers Posts: 1,329
    You mean Neil Oliver? I have the overpowering urge to grab him and give him a hair cut...

    WOTSS is the usual visual heavy and science light BBC fare but it's better than most of the dross on TV.
  • timb64
    timb64 Posts: 248
    Cressers wrote:
    You mean Neil Oliver? I have the overpowering urge to grab him and give him a hair cut...

    It's written into his BBC contract that he can only appear on screen if there is sufficient breeze to stir his luscious locks :lol:
    I really laughed when he was at a fish processing factory and they made him wear a blue plastic hair protector :evil:
  • Bunneh
    Bunneh Posts: 1,329
    Must admit I was looking forward to it last night but I found Cox quite'meh... He's just not engaging enough for me to want to watch it through; I kept checking the time to see when it was over. The Tropic of Cancer, which was on prior, was far more interesting.
    http://www.youtube.com/user/Eurobunneh - My Youtube channel.
  • Ho hum
    Ho hum Posts: 236
    Bunneh wrote:
    Must admit I was looking forward to it last night but I found Cox quite'meh... He's just not engaging enough for me to want to watch it through; I kept checking the time to see when it was over. The Tropic of Cancer, which was on prior, was far more interesting.

    I quite liked him IMO.

    How old is he? He does seem very young to be a professor.
  • redddraggon
    redddraggon Posts: 10,862
    Ho hum wrote:
    Bunneh wrote:
    Must admit I was looking forward to it last night but I found Cox quite'meh... He's just not engaging enough for me to want to watch it through; I kept checking the time to see when it was over. The Tropic of Cancer, which was on prior, was far more interesting.

    I quite liked him IMO.

    How old is he? He does seem very young to be a professor.

    42
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  • gert_lush
    gert_lush Posts: 634
    ....you never see prof Brian and James blunt in the same room...strange!
    FCN 8 mainly
    FCN 4 sometimes
  • jimmcdonnell
    jimmcdonnell Posts: 328
    Even more bizarre he used to be in D:Ream (think 'Things Can Only Get Better') as the keyboard player. No joke, that's a science fact.

    Not a bad series, yes it's 21st Century information lite, heavy on the flashy but not informative graphics, but that'll be a production decision, not Prof Cox's.

    The entire series heavily references the 1980s 'Cosmos', fronted by late great Carl Sagan. Worth looking at that if you get a chance. A bit dated but still the benchmark.
    Litespeed Tuscany, Hope/Open Pro, Ultegra, pulling an Extrawheel trailer, often as not.

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    Twitter: @jimjmcdonnell
  • Bunneh
    Bunneh Posts: 1,329
    Hasn't he been on the Sky at Night with with our best buddy Patrick? Cox did seem very young and when he mentioned seeing something in 1975 I took a double take. Suppose I can look on the bright side, it wasn't Ant and Dec, or Richard Hammond (who I like but who is now over exposed).
    http://www.youtube.com/user/Eurobunneh - My Youtube channel.
  • El Gordo
    El Gordo Posts: 394
    Cressers wrote:
    You mean Neil Oliver? I have the overpowering urge to grab him and give him a hair cut...

    WOTSS is the usual visual heavy and science light BBC fare but it's better than most of the dross on TV.

    Neil Oliver's the guy from Coast isn't he? No, not him - you know, the guy who's always standing in a dried up riverbed in Africa getting all excited about rocks and fossils and stuff. Can't stand him, whatever his name is.

    BBC science programmes seem to be presented as a series of headlines with a few pretty pictures but absolutely no science.
  • stigofthedump
    stigofthedump Posts: 331
    All the planets orbit anticlockwise, spin anticlockwise on their axes and their moons orbit anticlockwise. The sun spins anticlockwise on its axis.
    This is because they were all made from the same cloud of gas and supernova debris sent spinning anticlockwise by gravitational forces about 5 billion years ago. Everything has been spinning the same way ever since.

    The planets axes all tilt slightly from perpendicular to the orbital plane, however Uranus' axis is tilted by about 90 degrees, possible due to a collision with an earth sized object in its early history.

    It is a bit sad that '21st Century information lite' didnt allow this to be mentioned in the show. :roll:
  • Splottboy
    Splottboy Posts: 3,695
    I thought there was 1 planet that span the other way, or was it a moon/
    Whatever, there is 1.

    Bet you know what it is the Stigster?!
  • fast as fupp
    fast as fupp Posts: 2,277
    jimmcdonnell wrote:
    Even more bizarre he used to be in D:Ream (think 'Things Can Only Get Better') as the keyboard player. No joke, that's a science fact.

    Not a bad series, yes it's 21st Century information lite, heavy on the flashy but not informative graphics, but that'll be a production decision, not Prof Cox's.

    The entire series heavily references the 1980s 'Cosmos', fronted by late great Carl Sagan. Worth looking at that if you get a chance. A bit dated but still the benchmark.

    +1 for carl sagan and cosmos!

    ive still got the book of the series
    'dont forget lads, one evertonian is worth twenty kopites'
  • andy162
    andy162 Posts: 634
    El Gordo wrote:
    Cressers wrote:
    You mean Neil Oliver? I have the overpowering urge to grab him and give him a hair cut...

    WOTSS is the usual visual heavy and science light BBC fare but it's better than most of the dross on TV.

    Neil Oliver's the guy from Coast isn't he? No, not him - you know, the guy who's always standing in a dried up riverbed in Africa getting all excited about rocks and fossils and stuff. Can't stand him, whatever his name is.

    BBC science programmes seem to be presented as a series of headlines with a few pretty pictures but absolutely no science.


    In our house Neil Oliver is known as " The Murderer"...not that he has actually murdered anyone, just that he looks like a murderer.

    "The Murderer" has to be delivered in a faux Scottish accent too...as if Taggart was saying it.
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,253
    El Gordo wrote:

    Neil Oliver's the guy from Coast isn't he? No, not him - you know, the guy who's always standing in a dried up riverbed in Africa getting all excited about rocks and fossils and stuff. Can't stand him, whatever his name is.

    Iain Stewart - he annoys me too.
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • craker
    craker Posts: 1,739
    Venus spins the other way.

    I just watched a great Horizon from 1973 about a guy named Immanuel Velikovsky who produced this fact and one or two others (mostly biblical accounts of the heavens) to suggest that Mars used to orbit where Venus does until Venus erupted from Jupiter, 2500 years ago. Crashing across the path of Earth (cue biblical floods, parting of the red sea) and dislodging Mars into it's current orbit (cue lots more biblical famines). See here.

    Quite popular in the early 70s (hippies. they'll believe anything). Even more discredited now than it was then.
  • Splottboy
    Splottboy Posts: 3,695
    COSMOS, Now yer talking.

    Music by Vangelis. One of his first TV efforts, not bad too.
    I prefer Opera Sauvage though.

    Famous Carl Sagan joke - to be told in a VERY DEEP voice...
    " I've tried to ring Carl, but he doesn't answer. I've tried Billions and Billions of times..!!! "

    Only us Old Git's will get it probably.
  • OffTheBackAdam
    OffTheBackAdam Posts: 1,869
    We'll be raising Yacob Bronowski's "Ascent of man" next!
    Remember that you are an Englishman and thus have won first prize in the lottery of life.
  • Splottboy
    Splottboy Posts: 3,695
    Why not? Made sense before the Atttttttttttten-boros took over all things Worldy!!!
  • stigofthedump
    stigofthedump Posts: 331
    Apparently the spin of Venus was changed by an impact from a large object, about the size of the moon. Interestingly it spins very slowly, one venusian day is longer than a venusian year (243 earth days vs 225 earth days).
    My favourite fact about venus is that its molten core has no escape valve so every so often the whole planet becomes molten. Hence there are very few inpact crates visible on the surface. On earth volcanoes allow the core to let off steam (lava) in a more controlled way.
  • freehub
    freehub Posts: 4,257
    stigofthedump wrote:
    Apparently the spin of Venus was changed by an impact from a large object, about the size of the moon. Interestingly it spins very slowly, one venusian day is longer than a venusian year (243 earth days vs 225 earth days).
    My favourite fact about venus is that its molten core has no escape valve so every so often the whole planet becomes molten. Hence there are very few inpact crates visible on the surface. On earth volcanoes allow the core to let off steam (lava) in a more controlled way.

    Every so often? More like half a billion years :lol:
  • Porgy
    Porgy Posts: 4,525
    james-burke.jpg

    James Burke was the greatest science presenter, although Magnus Pike warrants a special mention....Burke wins as the only one who's been mentioned in a Human League song.
  • timb64
    timb64 Posts: 248
    Porgy wrote:
    james-burke.jpg

    James Burke was the greatest science presenter, although Magnus Pike warrants a special mention....Burke wins as the only one who's been mentioned in a Human League song.


    Connections-now that was a great science programme
  • Cressers
    Cressers Posts: 1,329
    Just seen the second of WOTSS and what I've noticed, apart from how earth-based it is, and how little science is explained, is the amount of inane 'background music. FFS leave it out!
  • LittleB0b
    LittleB0b Posts: 416
    Bunneh wrote:
    Must admit I was looking forward to it last night but I found Cox quite'meh...

    really? i thought he was quite cute.
    blog: bellevedere
  • roger_merriman
    roger_merriman Posts: 6,165
    Cressers wrote:
    Just seen the second of WOTSS and what I've noticed, apart from how earth-based it is, and how little science is explained, is the amount of inane 'background music. FFS leave it out!

    I gave it about 20 mins and then gave up. I'm quite happy to watch dross but not stuff that should be informitive.

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