Good day and glad y’all are joining our Word of the Week blog series. My name is Leonard Hale, with Gulf Copper Energy Services, a division of Gulf Copper and Manufacturing Inc.
Earth’s Analemma
Last week our first word in this series was Analemma.There were many responses on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook for this word.. My friend and college classmate, Jim Flynn, shared his fantastic art that he calls “Sunbelt” depicting an analemma. I took the liberty of using his art as the featured image for this blog post. We also received responses from Kendall Gonzales, Dean Loveridge, Chris Weckesser, Russel Miller, Corey Stone, Jan Sundberg, Mike Jimenez, and Burt Moorhouse. Thank you all for participating, looking forward to hearing from you and others this week as well.
The Wikipedia definition tells us that an Analemma is a diagram showing the variation of the position of the sun in the sky over the course of a year., as viewed at a fixed time of day and from a fixed location on earth. The North – South component of the Analemma is due to the change of the suns declination caused by the tilt of the earth’s axis, and the East – West component is due to the non uniform rate of change of the suns right ascension, governed by combined effects of axial tilt and the earth’s orbital eccentricity. The diagram has the form of a slender figure eight, and can be found on globes of the earth. Here is a picture of one taken from Wikipedia:
So it is all about the suns location in the sky at the same time of the day, each day of the year. An Analemma can be used to determine your location if you know your position relative to the sun and the horizon. This would be determined relatively accurately with a sextant, but could also be done with a measuring stick and a shadow. (OBVIOUSLY NOT ON A ROLLING SHIP, but on land it could).
If you did not know this before, you now have one more interesting word in your vocabulary!
The word for this next week (Word of the Week #2) is used by naval architects and doctors, alike. It is intercostal, not to be confused with intercoastal. So reach deep down in your memory and let me know if you have come across this word before. But do not go on Wikipedia or the Internet and look it up, stretch your brain cells. Looking forward to seeing you here next week to review this word, intercostal, and get a new word.
Until then, be safe in all that you do. See ya!
Leonard Hale PMP
