The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1910-03-17
THE MAN AT THE POLE.
Some Of the Peculiar Conditions That
Would Confront Him.

00"hS " Inc REGULAR SO1OltIoHS tnaA
Would Confront Him.
Ii a mar could live at the north
pole through 100 days he would be
100 years old, for a year at the pole
is made up of just n day and one
night.
About the 2lst day of March the
sun peeps above the horizon, but
not IN the east, for to the man on
the pole there is no east or west
or north. There is nowhere to 60
but south. A few days later the
sun is apparently rolling around on
the horizon for the entire twenty
four hours. Without ID timepiece
she man AT the pole could not dis
tinguish the goth day of March
from the Both of March. TO para
phrase a popular saying, all days in
the calendar look alike to him.
After apparently rolling over the
horizon for sixty or seventy hours
the sun, always in full view, begins
a slowly ascending spiral until it
reaches an altitude of twenty-three
and a half degrees. There are nine
ty degrees from the horizon to the
zenith, and twenty-three and d half
are considerably less than a third of
ninety degrees. SO the MAJ at the
pole doesn't have to lean backward
to gaze at the midday sun.
After some two or three days at
its greatest altitude the sun begins
a slowly descending spiral course,
and about the middle Of September
it is again rolling around the hori-
zon, and a few hours later, as the
last edge of it disappears below the
horizon, night nsues- night that
lasts from Sept. 21 until the fol-
lowing March p.
The man at the pole sees all the
stars in the northern half of the
celestial armament at one time. He
does not have to wait for the V
luton of the earth on its axis to
bring any of them into view. But
he can never see many Of the stars
we see, just as we stay at homes are
never able to see the Southern Cross
and other consultations of the
southern celestial hemisphere. The
moon visits the man at the pole and
keeps him company for weeks, cir
cling the horizon just as the sun
did, but at a lower altitude.
The north star, Polaris, is almost
directly overhead. 1t is a degree
and a fraction, you know, out of
true north.
At the pole all meridians of Ion
gitude meet. So to describe ones
position there no longitude is nee
essary-only latitude 80 degrees.
The north pole of the compass
points south at the north pole. So,
indeed, does the south pole of the
compass, for south is the only di-
rectlon away from the north pole.
The stars appear brighter, a star
of one magnitude less than can be
seen in the United States being
easily visible in the arctic regions.
No rotation of the earth takes
place at the pole. So if Mr.. Man
was on the equator he would be
turning with the earth at the rate
Of over a thousand miles an hour,
while if at the exact pole he would
not turn at all-or at most, if he
stood stock still for t%wenty-four
hours, he himself would rotate just
once.
The pole is the nearest point on
the surface Of the earth to the cen-
ter of the earth. Consequently OF
leaving the pole one would have to
be continually marching up hill.
For this same reason things weigh
more at the pole than anywhere
else on the surface of the earth.-
St. Louis Rerublic.