The Mystery Spot is a place in the Santa Cruz mountains where strange things happen. Some sources claim it to be a mere illusion. The official Mystery Spot web site claims the spot to be a "gravitational anomaly". It's neither. There are more of these "spots" on Earth. "Confusion Hill" along 101 further north in California is another such place. I saw a map once that had identified about a dozen such places around the world. I'm not certain of the true count.
Let's talk about the sun for a minute. The sun is a big ball of plasma. Plasma is an electrically conducting form of matter. As such, electromagnetism is a major factor in the sun's behavior. Are you familiar with the sunspot cycle? Humanity has known for a long time that sunspots come and go at roughly regular intervals: about 11 years for a complete cycle. We have since come to understand how and why it does that.
The sun does not spin as a contiguous sphere. It's not like a regular ball where spots on the surface stay in roughly the same place, relative to another. On the sun, the equator moves around faster than the higher latitudes do. I think it takes 26 for stuff at the equator to make a complete revolution around the sun. Closer to the poles, a complete revolution approaches 40 days. That differential of spin causes the sun's magnetic field to tie itself into knots. Instead of all the magnetic field lines being orderly, like you might seen in artist's impression of magnetic field, the ones on the sun get twisted up and weird. Those knots/anomalies are what cause sunspots. The more the magnetic field gets tied up, the more sunspots will appear. Before long, it becomes too much for the sun. The sun essentially "short-circuits", flips the orientation of it's magnetic field, and starts the cycle anew. That it is to say when the magnetic field goes too far it will destabilize, collapse, then rebuild. Rebuilding makes a brand new, undisturbed magnetic field. It also flips the magnetic field: the north pole will move to the south, the south magnetic pole will exist in the north, for about 11 years, then they flip back again. This is confirmed science.
...and this is territory modern science hasn't covered yet: Earth does the same thing! We have a differential of movement too (which is necessary to produce a magnetic field in the first place). The core of earth is a chunk of iron that spins faster than the surface does. We are getting into the realm of magnetohydrodynamics, the behavior of plasma. The physics behind it complicated but the concept is easy to grasp. In the Earth, we have a complex interaction involving the core, mantle layers and crust. The surface of earth (the crust) is more or less solid but the layers beneath are dynamic and interact in ways largely influenced by MagnetoHydroDynamics (MHD), just like the sun.
Earth flips it's magnetic field too! This is confirmed science. We have an area of geophysics I know as "paleomagnetology". You can read about here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomagnetic_reversal Paying attention to the sun tells us exactly how this situation arises! We know if you tie magnetic fields up they will cause MHD phenomena called "sunspots". We know when the lines of force get tied up too much, the system will short-circuit, flip the magnetic field, and start the process anew. We know this process happens on Earth. We know that process will yield MHD phenomena known as "sunspots". What we have not done, until now was, to properly identify those "sunspots" here on earth. The Mystery Spot is one of those "sunspots". I like calling them "Alfvén Vortices", after the physicist who taught humanity so much about the behavior of plasmas.
Electromagnetism is 10^36 times stronger than gravitation. Gravitation is puny, by comparison, in most environments. If we had a strong electromagnetic influence on the surface of earth, we could expect it to compete with behaviors that would normally be determined by gravitation alone. We would see weird things, and experience uncommon phenomena. This is precisely what we experience when we visit "The Mystery Spot", or "Confusion Hill' (further north in California), or any of the other "vortices". What is going on there is more than illusion, as some sources claim. It is a legitimate phenomenon. The only thing we didn't know, what what type of phenomenon it was. A bit of reasoning demands Earth has "sunspots" too. An honest assessment of The Mystery Spot reveals a legitimate phenomena that behaves independently of gravitation. These things are same. The Mystery Spot and "terrestrial sunspots" are the same phenomena. The mystery has been solved... I think that makes visiting even more fun! For me, the novelty of what you're standing is far more compelling than sheer ignorance.
Let's talk about the sun for a minute. The sun is a big ball of plasma. Plasma is an electrically conducting form of matter. As such, electromagnetism is a major factor in the sun's behavior. Are you familiar with the sunspot cycle? Humanity has known for a long time that sunspots come and go at roughly regular intervals: about 11 years for a complete cycle. We have since come to understand how and why it does that.
The sun does not spin as a contiguous sphere. It's not like a regular ball where spots on the surface stay in roughly the same place, relative to another. On the sun, the equator moves around faster than the higher latitudes do. I think it takes 26 for stuff at the equator to make a complete revolution around the sun. Closer to the poles, a complete revolution approaches 40 days. That differential of spin causes the sun's magnetic field to tie itself into knots. Instead of all the magnetic field lines being orderly, like you might seen in artist's impression of magnetic field, the ones on the sun get twisted up and weird. Those knots/anomalies are what cause sunspots. The more the magnetic field gets tied up, the more sunspots will appear. Before long, it becomes too much for the sun. The sun essentially "short-circuits", flips the orientation of it's magnetic field, and starts the cycle anew. That it is to say when the magnetic field goes too far it will destabilize, collapse, then rebuild. Rebuilding makes a brand new, undisturbed magnetic field. It also flips the magnetic field: the north pole will move to the south, the south magnetic pole will exist in the north, for about 11 years, then they flip back again. This is confirmed science.
...and this is territory modern science hasn't covered yet: Earth does the same thing! We have a differential of movement too (which is necessary to produce a magnetic field in the first place). The core of earth is a chunk of iron that spins faster than the surface does. We are getting into the realm of magnetohydrodynamics, the behavior of plasma. The physics behind it complicated but the concept is easy to grasp. In the Earth, we have a complex interaction involving the core, mantle layers and crust. The surface of earth (the crust) is more or less solid but the layers beneath are dynamic and interact in ways largely influenced by MagnetoHydroDynamics (MHD), just like the sun.
Earth flips it's magnetic field too! This is confirmed science. We have an area of geophysics I know as "paleomagnetology". You can read about here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomagnetic_reversal Paying attention to the sun tells us exactly how this situation arises! We know if you tie magnetic fields up they will cause MHD phenomena called "sunspots". We know when the lines of force get tied up too much, the system will short-circuit, flip the magnetic field, and start the process anew. We know this process happens on Earth. We know that process will yield MHD phenomena known as "sunspots". What we have not done, until now was, to properly identify those "sunspots" here on earth. The Mystery Spot is one of those "sunspots". I like calling them "Alfvén Vortices", after the physicist who taught humanity so much about the behavior of plasmas.
Electromagnetism is 10^36 times stronger than gravitation. Gravitation is puny, by comparison, in most environments. If we had a strong electromagnetic influence on the surface of earth, we could expect it to compete with behaviors that would normally be determined by gravitation alone. We would see weird things, and experience uncommon phenomena. This is precisely what we experience when we visit "The Mystery Spot", or "Confusion Hill' (further north in California), or any of the other "vortices". What is going on there is more than illusion, as some sources claim. It is a legitimate phenomenon. The only thing we didn't know, what what type of phenomenon it was. A bit of reasoning demands Earth has "sunspots" too. An honest assessment of The Mystery Spot reveals a legitimate phenomena that behaves independently of gravitation. These things are same. The Mystery Spot and "terrestrial sunspots" are the same phenomena. The mystery has been solved... I think that makes visiting even more fun! For me, the novelty of what you're standing is far more compelling than sheer ignorance.
