Ticker for November 16, 2000

                
MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ...
November 16, 2000  November 16, 2000  November 16, 2000  November 16, 2000


Ticker Spawns Firestorm of Communication

Yesterday's Ticker detailing the pressure-temperature relationship in
a constant-volume system launched a flurry of correspondence the likes
of which we've has never seen.  In fact, yesterday's e-mail response
tied for the largest in the Ticker's history.

On a related note, the Ticker would like to thank both of the folks
who responded to yesterday's article.

One reader, a thermodynamics professor, actually retrieved the Mesonet
data for the contant-volume period.  He calculated the appropriate
barometric response to the temperature flucuations during that period
(a hand recount, if you will).  The result?  That box behaved just
as Charles' Law dictates!

The professor added that even though Jacques-Alexander-Cesar Charles
is credited with the discovery of the relationship between temperature
and pressure at constant volume, it was actually Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac
who developed the relationship.


Leonid Meteor Shower Tonight!

Tonight marks the first night of a two-night peak of the annual Leonid
meteor shower, as the earth passes through the debris left behind in
the orbits of Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle. Because of the quarter-moon and
the fact that the earth won't be passing directly through the tail of
any recent returns of the comet ("recent" meaning "in the last few
centuries", because the comet passes by earth's orbit every 33 years
or so), it won't be the most spectacular Leonid shower.  However,
because it passes near the tails of the 1932, 1733 and 1866 returns,
the show should be fairly good in its own right.

A graphic displaying the current orbit of the earth relative to recent
returns of the comet is given below (courtesy David Asher, Armagh [UK]
Observatory):


The current National Weather Service forecast calls for mostly clear
skies throughout the state tonight and increasing cloudiness tomorrow
night.