TedTest

From the Ted Talk by Brian Jones: What on Earth is spin?

Unscramble the Blue Letters

The next time you see a news report of a hurricane or a tropical storm showing high winds battering trees and houess, ask yourself, "How did the wind get going so fast?" Amazingly enough, this is a motion that started more than five billion years ago. But, to understand why, we need to understand spin. In physics, we talk about two types of miootn. The first is straight-line motion. You push on something, and it moves forward. The second type, spin, involves an object rotating, or turning on its axis in pacle. An ojcebt in straight-line motion will move forever unless something, like the friction of the gronud baeenth it, causes it to slow down and stop. The same thing happens when you get something spinning. It will keep on spinning until something stops it. But the spin can speed up. If an ice satekr is gilindg across the ice in straight-line motion and she pulls her arms in, she keeps on gliding at the same seped. But if she is spinning on the ice and she pulls her arms in, you know what happens next. She spins faster. This is clelad the conservation of angular momentum. Mathematically, angular momentum is a product of two numbers, one that gives the spin rate and one that gives the distance of the mass from the axis. If something is freely siinpnng, as one number gets bigger, the other gets smaller. Arms closer, spin faster. Arms farther, spin slower. Spin causes other etffecs, too. If you are riding on a spinning merry-go-round and you toss a ball to a friend, it will appear to follow a curving path. It doesn't actually curve, though. It really goes in a sriagtht line. You were the one who was following a crnuvig path, but, from your point of view, the ball aaperps to curve. We call this the coriolis ecfeft. Oh, and you are riding on a speeding merry-go-round right now at this very moment. We call it the Earth. The Earth spnis on its axis once each day. But why does the Earth spin? Now, that's a srtoy that starts billions of years ago. A cloud of dust and gas that form the Sun and the Earth and the planets and you and me started to collapse as gravity pulled it all together. Before it started to collapse, this cloud had a very glntee spin. And, as it collapsed, like that ice skater pulling her arms in, the spin got faster and faster. And everything that formed out of the cloud, the Sun and the planets around the Sun and the moons around the planets, all iihtnreed this spin. And this inherited spin is what gives us nhigt and day. And this day-night cycle is what drives our weather. The Earth is warm on the daytime side, cool on the nighttime side, and it's warmer at the equator than at the poels. The drnifeefces in tepmreuarte make differences in air pressure, and the differences in air pressure make air move. They make the wind blow. But, because the Earth spins, the moving air curves to the right in the Northern Hemisphere because of the ciliroos effect. If there's a regoin of low psresure in the atmosphere, air is pushed toward it, like water going down a drain. But the air cverus to the right as it goes, and this gives it a spin. With the dramatic low pressure in a storm, the air gets pluled in tighter and teghtir, so it gets going fesatr and faster, and this is how we get the high winds of a hurricane. So, when you see a spinning storm on a weather report, think about this: The spin ultimately came from the spin of the Earth, and the Earth's spin is a renamnt, a fossil relic, of the gentle spin of the cloud of dust and gas that celoalpsd to make the Earth some five billion years ago. You are watching something, the spin, that is older than dirt, that's older than rocks, that's odelr than the ertah itself.

Open Cloze

The next time you see a news report of a hurricane or a tropical storm showing high winds battering trees and ______, ask yourself, "How did the wind get going so fast?" Amazingly enough, this is a motion that started more than five billion years ago. But, to understand why, we need to understand spin. In physics, we talk about two types of ______. The first is straight-line motion. You push on something, and it moves forward. The second type, spin, involves an object rotating, or turning on its axis in _____. An ______ in straight-line motion will move forever unless something, like the friction of the ______ _______ it, causes it to slow down and stop. The same thing happens when you get something spinning. It will keep on spinning until something stops it. But the spin can speed up. If an ice ______ is _______ across the ice in straight-line motion and she pulls her arms in, she keeps on gliding at the same _____. But if she is spinning on the ice and she pulls her arms in, you know what happens next. She spins faster. This is ______ the conservation of angular momentum. Mathematically, angular momentum is a product of two numbers, one that gives the spin rate and one that gives the distance of the mass from the axis. If something is freely ________, as one number gets bigger, the other gets smaller. Arms closer, spin faster. Arms farther, spin slower. Spin causes other _______, too. If you are riding on a spinning merry-go-round and you toss a ball to a friend, it will appear to follow a curving path. It doesn't actually curve, though. It really goes in a ________ line. You were the one who was following a _______ path, but, from your point of view, the ball _______ to curve. We call this the coriolis ______. Oh, and you are riding on a speeding merry-go-round right now at this very moment. We call it the Earth. The Earth _____ on its axis once each day. But why does the Earth spin? Now, that's a _____ that starts billions of years ago. A cloud of dust and gas that form the Sun and the Earth and the planets and you and me started to collapse as gravity pulled it all together. Before it started to collapse, this cloud had a very ______ spin. And, as it collapsed, like that ice skater pulling her arms in, the spin got faster and faster. And everything that formed out of the cloud, the Sun and the planets around the Sun and the moons around the planets, all _________ this spin. And this inherited spin is what gives us _____ and day. And this day-night cycle is what drives our weather. The Earth is warm on the daytime side, cool on the nighttime side, and it's warmer at the equator than at the _____. The ___________ in ___________ make differences in air pressure, and the differences in air pressure make air move. They make the wind blow. But, because the Earth spins, the moving air curves to the right in the Northern Hemisphere because of the ________ effect. If there's a ______ of low ________ in the atmosphere, air is pushed toward it, like water going down a drain. But the air ______ to the right as it goes, and this gives it a spin. With the dramatic low pressure in a storm, the air gets ______ in tighter and _______, so it gets going ______ and faster, and this is how we get the high winds of a hurricane. So, when you see a spinning storm on a weather report, think about this: The spin ultimately came from the spin of the Earth, and the Earth's spin is a _______, a fossil relic, of the gentle spin of the cloud of dust and gas that _________ to make the Earth some five billion years ago. You are watching something, the spin, that is older than dirt, that's older than rocks, that's _____ than the _____ itself.

Solution

tighter
collapsed
inherited
differences
skater
spins
curving
effect
motion
straight
story
beneath
object
region
speed
gliding
older
night
called
place
earth
pulled
appears
coriolis
poles
temperature
remnant
houses
ground
pressure
gentle
spinning
curves
faster
effects

Original Text

The next time you see a news report of a hurricane or a tropical storm showing high winds battering trees and houses, ask yourself, "How did the wind get going so fast?" Amazingly enough, this is a motion that started more than five billion years ago. But, to understand why, we need to understand spin. In physics, we talk about two types of motion. The first is straight-line motion. You push on something, and it moves forward. The second type, spin, involves an object rotating, or turning on its axis in place. An object in straight-line motion will move forever unless something, like the friction of the ground beneath it, causes it to slow down and stop. The same thing happens when you get something spinning. It will keep on spinning until something stops it. But the spin can speed up. If an ice skater is gliding across the ice in straight-line motion and she pulls her arms in, she keeps on gliding at the same speed. But if she is spinning on the ice and she pulls her arms in, you know what happens next. She spins faster. This is called the conservation of angular momentum. Mathematically, angular momentum is a product of two numbers, one that gives the spin rate and one that gives the distance of the mass from the axis. If something is freely spinning, as one number gets bigger, the other gets smaller. Arms closer, spin faster. Arms farther, spin slower. Spin causes other effects, too. If you are riding on a spinning merry-go-round and you toss a ball to a friend, it will appear to follow a curving path. It doesn't actually curve, though. It really goes in a straight line. You were the one who was following a curving path, but, from your point of view, the ball appears to curve. We call this the coriolis effect. Oh, and you are riding on a speeding merry-go-round right now at this very moment. We call it the Earth. The Earth spins on its axis once each day. But why does the Earth spin? Now, that's a story that starts billions of years ago. A cloud of dust and gas that form the Sun and the Earth and the planets and you and me started to collapse as gravity pulled it all together. Before it started to collapse, this cloud had a very gentle spin. And, as it collapsed, like that ice skater pulling her arms in, the spin got faster and faster. And everything that formed out of the cloud, the Sun and the planets around the Sun and the moons around the planets, all inherited this spin. And this inherited spin is what gives us night and day. And this day-night cycle is what drives our weather. The Earth is warm on the daytime side, cool on the nighttime side, and it's warmer at the equator than at the poles. The differences in temperature make differences in air pressure, and the differences in air pressure make air move. They make the wind blow. But, because the Earth spins, the moving air curves to the right in the Northern Hemisphere because of the coriolis effect. If there's a region of low pressure in the atmosphere, air is pushed toward it, like water going down a drain. But the air curves to the right as it goes, and this gives it a spin. With the dramatic low pressure in a storm, the air gets pulled in tighter and tighter, so it gets going faster and faster, and this is how we get the high winds of a hurricane. So, when you see a spinning storm on a weather report, think about this: The spin ultimately came from the spin of the Earth, and the Earth's spin is a remnant, a fossil relic, of the gentle spin of the cloud of dust and gas that collapsed to make the Earth some five billion years ago. You are watching something, the spin, that is older than dirt, that's older than rocks, that's older than the Earth itself.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation	frequency
high winds	2
billion years	2
ice skater	2
angular momentum	2
coriolis effect	2
gentle spin	2
air curves	2

Important Words

air
amazingly
angular
appears
arms
atmosphere
axis
ball
battering
beneath
bigger
billion
billions
blow
call
called
closer
cloud
collapse
collapsed
conservation
cool
coriolis
curve
curves
curving
cycle
day
daytime
differences
dirt
distance
drain
dramatic
drives
dust
earth
effect
effects
equator
fast
faster
follow
form
formed
fossil
freely
friction
friend
gas
gentle
gliding
gravity
ground
hemisphere
high
houses
hurricane
ice
inherited
involves
line
mass
mathematically
moment
momentum
moons
motion
move
moves
moving
news
night
nighttime
northern
number
numbers
object
older
path
physics
place
planets
point
poles
pressure
product
pulled
pulling
pulls
push
pushed
rate
region
relic
remnant
report
riding
rocks
rotating
showing
side
skater
slow
slower
smaller
speed
speeding
spin
spinning
spins
started
starts
stop
stops
storm
story
straight
sun
talk
temperature
tighter
time
toss
trees
tropical
turning
type
types
ultimately
understand
view
warm
warmer
watching
water
weather
wind
winds
years