Icelandic rocks could have steered Vikings (BBC) {Icelandic spar}

eppur_se_muova

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Wed Nov-02-11 02:05 AM
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Icelandic rocks could have steered Vikings (BBC) {Icelandic spar}

By Jennifer Carpenter
Science reporter, BBC News

Vikings used rocks from Iceland to navigate the high seas, suggests a new study.

In Norse legends, sunstones are said to have guided seafarers to North America.

Now an international team of scientists report in the journal the Proceedings of the Royal Society A that the Icelandic spars behave like mythical sunstones and polarise light.

By holding the stones aloft, voyaging Vikings could have used them to find the sun in the sky.

The Vikings were skilled navigators and travelled thousand of kilometres between Northern Europe and North America.
***
more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15523520

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birefringence (because the article makes it sound like this was just discovered)

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sakabatou

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Wed Nov-02-11 02:14 AM
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1. Interesting, but not as good as these sun stones:

If you know where these come from, huzzuh to you.

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eppur_se_muova

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Wed Nov-02-11 02:15 AM
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2. My grandmother used to have one of those sitting on her porch.

She used to work in a glass factory. :)

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sakabatou

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Wed Nov-02-11 02:16 AM
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3. Did they power machines?

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eppur_se_muova

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Wed Nov-02-11 02:22 AM
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4. ????

Actually, what she had was something different -- couldn't read those cursive captions.

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sakabatou

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Wed Nov-02-11 02:23 AM
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5. Then you didn't read the book where the image came from

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sakabatou

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Wed Nov-02-11 12:33 PM
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7. Dinotopia

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krispos42

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Fri Nov-04-11 12:46 PM
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8. !

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

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Tejas

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Wed Nov-02-11 06:08 AM
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6. They used Labrodite from Finland in navigational devices.

Inside, Labrodite is a beautiful rock. When broken open, it fractures in sheets with irridescent/holographic colors.

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