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…Back to Basics… Donn Dears June 4, 2021
When studying energy, a good place to start is with the sun. It is, after all, the source of our energy. Just a rudimentary understanding of the sun can shed light on all the events related to energy on Earth. The sun, for example, affects our weather. It has also left energy stored in the Earth from prior epochs. Earlier cultures instinctively looked to the sun as the source of life. For them, it was obvious the sun was central to their existence. We are now too sophisticated to think in such terms. Yet, it’s obvious the sun plays a role in our existence. Shouldn’t any study of energy begin with a study of the sun? Modern scientists started to examine the workings of the sun around the 17th century. William Herschel was, perhaps, the first scientist to begin to unravel the sun’s complexity. His study of solar eclipses, the recognition of sunspot cycles and the discovery of infrared radiation from the sun, represented the first rigorous examination of the sun. And its effects. Herschel, for example, linked the price of wheat and other grains to sunspots. He conjectured that, “Periods of greater sunspot numbers somehow seemed to induce better seasons and more bountiful growth”. We are about to enter the 25th solar cycle, and there is speculation as to whether it will result in a dearth of sunspots, or a resurgence in sunspot activity. The period known as the little ice age was accompanied by a near century long dearth of sunspot activity, identified as the Maunder Minimum. 1