How to Destroy the Universe Read Online Free PDF Page A

sometimes shake violently, but when the engine is revved to higher rpm the shaking subsides. Taipei 101, a 101-story skyscraper in Taiwan, sports the largest tuned mass damper of any in the world. The bob of the damper pendulum weighs a mammoth 660 tons. The damper not only helps mitigate the threat from earthquakes but also serves to steady the building in high winds.
Earthquake prediction
    Every year, one day in the third week of October, at 10:15 am, millions of Californians dive under tables, chairs and any other forms of cover they can find. Called the Great California ShakeOut, it’s the world’s largest earthquake drill. The annual drill is designed to help the sunshine state cope in the event of an unforeseen quake. Because that’s what most quakes are: unforeseen. The science of earthquake prediction is, at best, shaky. It’s rare for seismologists to predict accurately the date, time, location and magnitude of an earthquake. There is no way for them to gather data about rock movements deep underground. Normally, the best they can offer is probabilities. For example, after studying a particular fault for many years, using strain gauges to measure how the rock is stretching at the surface, they might be able to say that there’s a 50 percent chance of a 6+ magnitude quake, somewhere along the fault line, during the next 20 years. So what prognosis do the seismologists offer California? A study by the United States Geological Survey in 2008 concluded that the probability of an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.7 or higher striking the Greater Bay Area surrounding San Francisco, sometime in the next 30 years, is about 63 percent—it’s twice as likely to happen as not.

CHAPTER 4
How to stop a hurricane
    â€¢ Hurricane Katrina
    â€¢ The Coriolis effect
    â€¢ Hurricane hotspots
    â€¢ The Saffir–Simpson scale
    â€¢ Project Stormfury
    â€¢ Cool hurricanes
    Hurricanes are the most devastating of all Earth’s weather phenomena. They are fierce thunderstorms sometimes over 2,000 km (1,250 miles) across. Windspeed within a hurricane can reach 280 km/h (180 mph). And they can be accompanied by waves 10 m (33 ft) high that sweep ashore when the hurricane makes landfall. The average hurricane cranks out energy at a rate equivalent to a 10 megaton nuclear detonation every 20 minutes. Can we ever hope to be master over such a force? Some scientists think so.
Hurricane Katrina
    On August 23, 2005, an innocuous-sounding weather system known as “Tropical Depression 12” formed overthe Bahamas. As it began edging its way toward the east coast of the United States, it grew in strength, reaching “tropical storm” status early on August 24. At this point it was also given a name: Katrina. The storm continued to gather momentum, reaching hurricane proportions just hours before crossing Florida and entering the Gulf of Mexico. By August 28, it had strengthened to category 5, the most intense variety of hurricane. It made landfall in Louisiana at 6 am on August 29 with catastrophic consequences. At least 1,800 people were killed, and a further half a million were left homeless. However, Katrina is not the most devastating hurricane on record. That dubious honor goes to the Bhola cyclone that struck Pakistan and India in November 1970. The wall of water that accompanied it swept half a million people to their deaths.
    Cyclones and hurricanes are essentially the same thing. The fundamental phenomenon is a cyclone—but cyclones cropping up in different parts of the world are given different names. A cyclone in the Atlantic Ocean, as was the case with Katrina, or in the eastern Pacific Ocean, is called a hurricane. One that arises in the western Pacific is known as a typhoon.
The Coriolis effect
    Cyclones begin when warm ocean water causes moist air to rise high into the sky, as far as 15 km (9 miles) up.At this altitude the air cools, releasing its heat, and causing the