[Elecraft] Solar Cycle

[Fred Jensen]

The solar cycle originated thanks to fruitcake [Fc].  All the fruitcake 
in the universe was created at the Big Bang, along with a lot of 
hydrogen [H] and some helium [He].  The hydrogen and helium began to 
float upward of course ... think Goodyear or Hindenburg ... but the Fc, 
being the densest thing in the universe began to gather the H and He 
into massive clumps using its gravity.

When the hydrogen became dense enough around the fruitcake, it began to 
fuse -- two H --> one He.  The helium atom weighed just a bit less than 
the two hydrogen's which showed up as a lot of energy which heated the 
clump until it began to emit light and other stuff [a technical term 
used by astrophysicists].  Eventually two He began to fuse producing one 
lithium [Li] atom and a lot more energy.  This of course was the 
beginning of laptop and cell phone batteries -- and Tesla.

This continued until almost all of the H and He was iron [Fe].  There 
was also the fruitcake of course, nothing fuses with fruitcake.  To fuse 
two Fe atoms would produce negative energy which hadn't been invented 
then, so with nothing left to do, the clump exploded and that was the 
first solar cycle.

All that fusing produced heavier elements which drifted around in space 
and eventually formed more hot, bright clumps with fruitcake at the 
center.  Some atoms were aluminum [Al] which formed into vast sheets 
called Reynolds Wrap [Rw], and which had an affinity for the Fc, 
wrapping itself around the Fc like Glad Wrap wraps around everything in 
the kitchen but the dish you're trying to cover.  That's how we find 
fruitcake today.

With the heavier elements, the hot bright clumps settled into a pattern 
of occasional explosions or semi-explosions, and that became the solar 
cycle we know, love, and anxiously wait for.

There is a Conservation of Fruitcake law.  You can't destroy it.  You 
can give it away, however it is nearly uniformly distributed in the 
universe and likely will come back at some point, usually around Christmas.

Many things have a half-life ... the time it takes for half of it to 
disappear or morph into something else.  The half-life of both disco and 
leisure suits was blessedly short.  The half-life of fruitcake is forever.

Eat your heart out, NOVA.

73,

Fred K6DGW
Rocket Scientist

On 7/21/2016 12:05 PM, w7aqk wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> FWIW, there was a very interesting program I watched last night on PBS.
> The regular program called "Nova" had a most informative discussion
> about the solar cycle and how it affects us here on Earth.  It won't
> tell you everything you want to know about propagation, etc., but it
> does give a lot of perspective as to why our communications can be so
> disrupted by solar storms.  They also talked a lot about "sunspots"!  We
> tend to think the more the better for us, but do we really understand
> how they form, and the effect they have?  This gives you some insight
> about that.
>
> Anyway, you might want to check it out, and I think you can watch it
> online at www.pbs.org/nova.
>
> Dave W7AQK