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Stuff You Should Know

Short Stuff: Magnetic Pole Switcheroo

Stuff You Should Know

iHeartPodcasts

Society & Culture

4.679.3K Ratings

🗓️ 22 November 2023

⏱️ 15 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Everyone once in a while, say a few hundred thousand years or so, the north and south poles of Earth’s magnetic field switch places. The result: Dogs and cats living together.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

The assassination of President John F. Kennedy is the greatest murder mystery in American history.

0:05.6

That's Rob Briner.

0:07.6

Rob called me, Soledette O'Brien, and asked me what I knew about this crime.

0:11.6

Well, ask, who had the motive to assassinate a sitting president.

0:16.0

Then we'll pull the curtain back on the cover-up.

0:20.0

The American people need to know the truth.

0:22.0

Listen to who the truth.

0:22.6

Listen to who killed JFK on the I Heart Radio app,

0:27.0

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. broadcasts. Yeah, you put this in together. This is a good one. We're talking about the magnetic field and specifically the switching of Earth's magnetic pole.

0:52.0

And I guess we should just start talking about what the magnetic field of the earth is, right?

0:57.0

Yeah, you kind of can't really get past that one because

1:00.8

apparently it seems to be fairly peculiar to earth to have a really solid inner core made of I think

1:07.0

iron and nickel and that that is basically bathed in a bath of molten outer core and because that molten outer core is

1:16.3

constantly roiling and convecting and doing all sorts of crazy motions it

1:21.2

actually produces a dynamo effect where a magnetic field is generated.

1:25.1

That inner core essentially becomes a giant bar magnet with a North Pole and a

1:30.6

South Pole. And that magnetic field radiates from the center of the earth

1:36.3

outward into outer space and it does some pretty cool stuff. One, it prevents

1:41.8

high energy particles that are bombarding Earth at all time from reaching Earth generally and killing us, just shooting right through your throat and out the other side.

1:52.0

So life can exist on earth.

1:54.7

And then less importantly, but more beautifully,

1:59.2

also creates the auroras.

...

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