THE UNCHAINED GODDESS Part 1

[Music] the Bell Telephone system brings you one of a series of programs on science man's effort to understand nature's laws [Music] [Applause] like to see something amusing in a moment two men a scientist and a writer are going to rehearse a weather program the story of weather they call it but what do humans know of weather I am weather I my Meteora goddess of weather let's watch them make fools of themselves all right Jim open your screen well the technical Department's ready how's the script still pretty much of a shambles I'm afraid better un shamble it pretty soon television doesn't wait for anything we need at least one rehearsal yeah I know I know but I got so much material what use are you going to make of your magic screen this time any ideas well I've got one let me try it on the screen once more magic screen doesn't seem to get it nothing shows up well that's the way with imagination sometimes hey Doc what's that Gadget well this is called a drop S A Drop what a drop s what's it for well it's dropped from an airplane and it radios back pretty complete weather information to the mother plane yeah pretty neat certainly is oh say sky waves and Sky rivers that come under prediction yes down toward the end I think about where the electronic weatherman is I thought you said your magic screen was blank I did take another [Applause] look what have I dreamed up this time didn't I tell you they were going to make fools of themselves Sky Rivers weather [Laughter] expert quiet electronic prediction now scram whoever you are we got a television show to rehearse quiet you dare thus address the weather deity mortal weather deities I am midora supreme goddess of weather and these are my attendant deities Sirus the cloud God borus god of the [Music] wind and the triplet Gods the marutas I'm rain I'm snow I'm hail you think this could be something I ate last night now look if you guys think you're going to clutter up our program with superstitions and dreams Legends Legends you call us Legends mortal why if it weren't for us you'd be speaking Spanish right now Spanish is that so doc yes that's right it's quite possible a tremendous storm saved England from the Spanish Armada what I did to those ships re them we could give you a thousand examples of where my whims have changed man's history but only a homer could write them Homer talk I think I'll turn in my typewriter a Meteora the tale of your effect on man is a long one but what we're interested in is the why and how of your activities the truth about the weather truth you guys calling me a liar when I say I blow to please myora that's not why you blow Wendy Wendy no it isn't the real cause of wind is the Sun here I'll show you Jim let's have roll two general circulation coming right up now anybody who's ever lived in the tropics knows that around the Equator the Earth is like a stove heated by the sun year in and year out and over this giant stove warm air is constantly Rising but near the poles the Earth's like a cake of ice frozen year around and over the poles cool air is constant ly falling now watch what comes out of this up and down air the cold air moves toward the equator to replace the rising warm air and the warm air moves high up toward the poles to replace the sinking cold air two big Loops of North and South Winds encircling the Earth and that is wind what's more they keep the earth green and warm bringing rain from the oceans and heat from the tropics if the sun were to fail all the Winds of the world would die away in a few weeks and our planet would be finished now wait a minute everybody knows I don't just blow up and down and north and south I blow East and West to sure sure but I'll give you odds you don't know why why why because because of Meteora uh-uh Wendy Meteora is not the answer do you know the [Music] answer well uh I got a friend who does like to drop in on a Carnival and meet him a carnival they've lost their mindes oh Carnival oh I like [Music] Carnival that Carnival belongs to my friend Professor coriolis and that's his Carl oh Professor I'm M please I am at your service two tickets no no tickets not today uh tomorrow maybe well maybe what we're interested in right now Professor would you explain to us why Wind Blows East and West as well as North and South uh-huh with pleasure to show this I must use the carousel atten now you must get on the carousel with the children now I give one child a bow so easy enough but see what happens when I start the carousel pi now but the ball curved natural Mo now let us watch the same action once more only this time we slow everything down Miss again you see it did curve ah you think so come we find out but this time we must get off of the happy go now we observe the exact same throw once more Pier whoop it never curved at all did I don't believe it what happens is I show you very very slow the catcher is moving with the carousel so the ball missed him but remember when you were on the carousel it looked like the [Music] these ah I begin to see when you're on the carousel it seems to curve when you're off it it doesn't that's right that's right and now I take you to the biggest Carousel of all the spinning [Music] Earth if take the part north of the equator and tilt it a little we have a carousel which turns counterclockwise to the left so for you on this Carousel like the little boy on the epig around everything curves to the right in the northern [Music] emisphere you do not believe me Aban suppose please that I am on the North Pole I am lonely and I wish very much to see in New York my friend Fifi coming Fifi oh no as the professor found out to someone on Earth unaware of its motion the rocket will curve to the right but to someone out in space who can tell the Earth is rotating this is what it looks like the rocket goes straight but the Earth is spinning but since we are not in space for us in the northern hemisphere there's this curve to the right for anything that moves Gunners must adjust for this apparent curve transatlantic planes would get lost if their Navigators didn't correct for the effect even migrating birds have some mysterious built-in mechanism which corrects for it and so you see par M you have Overlook the best example of the drift to the right the wind this Hall of Fame is called the coris [Music] E I trust I have made all this quite clear of well uh if it isn't quite clear let's examine our wind loop again see what happens when the earth begins to make like the professor's happy go around the big loop becomes three small smaller Loops now so we can look at them uh I bring the carousel to a stop just like the professor this Loop by the equator is just a smaller version of our original one but the southbound air close to the ground swung to its right by coriolis begins to blow from the East isn't that about it D yes that's right creating the trade winds the trade winds that Sailors used for centuries to C CC the globe now Loop Number Two here the air near the ground moves North because um doc maybe you better take over huh well this reverse Loop hasn't been completely explained but it's easy to see that lateral friction due to large scale turbulence the transport of angular momentum conservation of potential vorticity as well as baroclinicity in the frontal Zone doc Let's uh let's just say the loop is there huh uh and that the Northbound air near the ground is swung to its right and begins to blow from the West creating the prevailing westerlies and finally the cold sinking air in the third Loop equator bound is swung to its right to become the polar easterlies there you have it folks from the coris maragon to the general circulation of the atmosphere and this is actually how wind is made well yes yes in general wind is created by the Sun and given Direction by the Coriolis effect borus for centuries you've been telling me you control the winds but but I do meteor there's more to it than that oh yes there is we know that there secondary causes of wind Land and Sea for instance ask them why I blow in two opposite directions on the the same day in the same place well that's an easy one now land Heats and cools rapidly water comparatively slowly this causes wind summer Sea Breeze is a good example now under the daytime sun the land back of the shore grows warmer than the sea and cool air flows from the sea to replace the warm air rising over the land at night when the temperature Inland Falls below that of the see the flows reversed the breeze changes and blows off the land yeah and of course there are other secondary causes of wind wrinkles in the Earth the mountains and valleys making up and down drafts and causing such winds as boras and Bergs and local heating and cooling making well haritan poras conas dust devils you name him and the dock will explain him well borus well what can you say of clouds of the Glorious masterpieces I create Exquisite and only one of the thousands I can produce from my pallet do you know what's on that pallet of yours curly dust plain ordinary dust this is really too much you can't mean dust you heard right Meteora we do mean dust dust and water let me show you the prescription uh uh Mr Apothecary Mr Apothecary Mr Apothecary h a house to mix us up a cloud Rush order how's that a cloud a cloud would't take a minute a clown see a cloud cloud cloud here tears pound pure air add water vapor till humid where did I put that water vapor oh yeah here is what water vapor just water in the form of gas now most air has water in it even though you can't see it no interruptions please mind your manners add water vapor just short of saturation pint and now the final ingredient Cloud dust there's no such thing as Cloud dust H oh yes there is Curly you can't see Cloud dust anymore more than you can see water vapor but the air is full of it we live in a Perpetual dust storm without knowing it salt crystals from the sea ash from fires and volcanoes exhaust products from Automobiles and factories Cloud dust just like I told you one pinch then cool and it's when air is cooled that dust makes clouds possible the excess water vapor millions of water molecules keeps fastening on to the bits of dust until they become visible Cloud droplets a cloud just like a told you now here's a prescription if you want to make up a cloud to hum mix air water vapor and dust chill thoroughly and there you be artist indeed and where do you think you're going we have work to do goddess the fields need rain a Mountain snow rain and snow make them feel in a snippet exactly the same ingredients as in m Cloud prescription air water vapor and dust only much colder this time I'll use a precipitation machine now watch closely [Music] when the temperature is considerably below freezing first thing that happens is that these tiny water droplets surrounding this dust particle freeze but all of them grow bigger and bigger by taking water vapor from the droplets around them until they start to fall some merge with other crystals some catch still other Cloud droplets and soon they become the big ice crystals we call Snow Yeah winter time it stay snow all the way down but in summer the snow melts and becomes rain I rain and really snow well got any other prescriptions you want filled no no thank you Mr Apothecary no no trouble at all if only Thor were here he'd silence them Thor thunder and lightning thunder and lightning the doc knows all about them wait a minute all abouts a big order of course everybody knows that thunder and lightning are associated with thunderstorm now here's a time-lapse film of a big one warm air pushing up through a fair weather Cloud called cumulus is the fuse that sets off thunderstorms the cumulus grows explosively sometimes Rising more than 40,000 ft in less than 10 minutes [Applause] the height of its growth the characteristic Anvil top formed and turns into a cumulo nimbus or raincloud and comes the deluge [Music] now let's see how these fireworks start in a cumulo Nimbus positive charges tend to accumulate near the top of the cloud and negative ones near the bottom forming reservoirs of positive and negative electricity it's also believed that electricity generated by wind shattered drops by friction between ice crystals by the freezing of drops is added to these reservoirs anyhow when they come overcharged something's got to [Music] give when you see lightning it can be within a cloud or between clouds or between the earth in a cloud and what you hear merely shock waves caused by the sudden expansion of air heated by lightning same kind of waves are sent out by exploding Dynamite now to the eye lightning looks like a single stroke but it's really a series of Strokes these pictures taken by a camera developed especially to photograph lightning show several distinct Strokes in a single quarter second flash as high as 40 Strokes have been recorded in a single flash who said lightning never strikes in the same place man has almost been able to do the trick here we're going to show you some tame lightning that always strikes in the same place make lightning will they you lead me to them Thor you show him yes Thor right there Thor humans all of you make a storm a thunderstorm I'm afraid that's quite impossible no thunderstorm today show the Mortal how wrong he is neither rain nor snow or sleep shall stay this flame I'll Marry The God Who puts that candle out I'll blow it [Music] out I'll show him [Music] Impostors F charlatan all these years don't blame your Gods Meteora they've been very real to us even though we created them to hide our fears of the unknown I'm so confused am I real oh yes weather is very real and difficult to understand oh but you do understand me you're the only [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] one there's something phony here how'd you know it couldn't storm the forecast from the weather bureau say and that should interest you Meteora cuz the bureau's got the largest staff of weather psychiatrists in the world you like to see the clinic they've set up at suland Maryland a clinic for me Mr scius call the national weather analysis Center operated by the United States weather bureau more than 200 Specialists working in shifts around the clock covering present and future weather from sea level to the stratosphere clear around the World each day they turn out 142 different charts how do they do it well like doctors everywhere they they get their dope directly from the patient in this case teletype data from the entire Northern Hemisphere humidity readings temperature wind velocity air pressure snow sleep rain 375,000 reports each day from more than 5,000 different places the reports arrive in an ingenious code International weather language this is a typical code message it reads exactly the same to a Weatherman in Milwaukee Moscow or Timbuktu every few hours reports are transcribed on an isobaric chart in the form of numbers and symbols isobaric chart that's a weather map to you and me and we've got one right here let's use it huh all right here we are now any meteorologist can tell it a glance what the weather was in any point in this whole vast gigantic area told you it was a phony all they got there is old weather true true borus but without old weather the medicos couldn't even make a start at diagnosing new weather you know maybe this isobaric chart of yours is a little complicated couldn't we show them how the weather experts make a map right from scratch well let's do it the first step is to record all the data like this next we draw these lines called isobars meaning equal pressure connecting those places that reported the same air pressure readings [Music] when the isobars form Clos curves as they often do the centers of the curves with high pressure readings are marked High and the centers of the curves with low pressure readings marked low these highs and lows are pretty important to the diagnosis because under a high the weather's more often than not fair and under a low more often than not cloudy but the most important thing is that air tends to flow from a high pressure area to a low [Music] one and what's more highs and lows don't just stand still know where the highs and lows are today and you got a pretty fair idea of tomorrow's weather is 600 miles to the east that's right and also of tomorrow's winds because around a high they invariably turn to the right and around a low to the left so knowing thisy wait a minute wait a minute excuse the interruption but I don't dig that left turn I I thought coriolis was always supposed to swing wind to the right yes and it tries to but because of the interaction between it and the pressure gradient Force Complicated by surface friction oh look uh I'm sure there's somebody that understands that but uh in order to make it clear to Meteora don't you think we ought to see if Professor coriolis himself is still around well professor professor carolis at your service M the matter is really quite simple if we think of the high as a mountain of air and the go as a Valley air flows down off the mountain as I will demonstrate like the air I start straight down off the mountain but the coris effect turns me and I spiral to the right it is like champine you know now the valley again like the the air I toss straight down into the valley and again corol turns me but what has happened aha I will tell you I cannot keep turning to the right because that takes me upward so I must resist the Corola pull and turn to the left ah there I go left and left and left until I am at the bottom it is is clear no add you [Music] [Applause] [Music]