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posted by martyb on Wednesday December 27 2017, @02:10AM   Printer-friendly
from the whatever-happened-to-the-Even-Seasons? dept.

A central conceit of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire books (and the popular HBO series Game of Thrones based on them) is that the seasons of the planet where they take place are not as predictable as the Earth's annual cycle. Somehow the phrase "winter is coming" wouldn't seem as foreboding if you could reply, "Yes, that usually happens in December through February."

But how could a planet have unruly seasons? Earth's seasons are due to the tilt of its axis. During one part of Earth's orbit, the Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun, with the resulting indirect sunlight spread thin over the surface of the hemisphere, causing winter. On the opposite side of its orbit, summer comes as this hemisphere is tilted toward direct sunlight. There isn't much room in such clockwork for randomness.

Well, if you've ever wanted to debate fan theories, here's an excellent new resource for you to draw from: a real climate model simulation of Westeros and Essos.

Source: Ars Technica


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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 27 2017, @02:28AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 27 2017, @02:28AM (#614558)

    I figured it was just a cycle like this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glacial_period [wikipedia.org]

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  • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday December 27 2017, @02:48AM

    by Gaaark (41) on Wednesday December 27 2017, @02:48AM (#614566) Journal

    Me too!

    --
    --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
  • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday December 27 2017, @03:12AM (1 child)

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Wednesday December 27 2017, @03:12AM (#614574)

    This post shows why we need a new -1 mod, for "uses mobile Wikipedia link". Stop doing that; it's fucking annoying.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Wednesday December 27 2017, @03:14AM

      by Grishnakh (2831) on Wednesday December 27 2017, @03:14AM (#614576)

      Actually, another solution, since the source code is well within the control of the mods, might be to simply automatically alter any Wikipedia links to eliminate that fucking ".m".