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ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

ORIGINAL: Zorch

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe




The Vikings could tell where the sun was when the sky was overcast. Or didn't you know that?

The effectiveness of the lodestone is as unclear as an overcast sky [:D]
The 'all the big guys on the same side of the boat joke' was used in Erik the Viking'.

The lodestone points to magnetic north, it does not indicate anything at all about where the sun is during the day. [8D]

ORIGINAL: Zorch

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

ORIGINAL: Zorch



The effectiveness of the lodestone is as unclear as an overcast sky [:D]
The 'all the big guys on the same side of the boat joke' was used in Erik the Viking'.

The lodestone points to magnetic north, it does not indicate anything at all about where the sun is during the day. [8D]

But how many Barbarians knew what magnetic north was? Anyhow, all the iron they're carrying could distort the reading. Maybe that's how they ended up in Newfoundland.

ORIGINAL: Orm

Perhaps it is a 'sunstone' that was referred to?

The sunstone (Icelandic: sólarsteinn) is a type of mineral attested in several 13th–14th century written sources in Iceland, one of which describes its use to locate the sun in a completely overcast sky. Sunstones are also mentioned in the inventories of several churches and one monastery in 14th–15th century Iceland and Germany.

A theory exists that the sunstone had polarizing attributes and was used as a navigation instrument by seafarers in the Viking Age.[1] A stone found in 2013 off Alderney, in the wreck of a 16th-century warship, may lend evidence of the existence of sunstones as navigational devices.[2]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

ORIGINAL: Zorch

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe




The lodestone points to magnetic north, it does not indicate anything at all about where the sun is during the day. [8D]

But how many Barbarians knew what magnetic north was? Anyhow, all the iron they're carrying could distort the reading. Maybe that's how they ended up in Newfoundland.

No, the barbarians did know what North was. Magnetic North and North are not far off for most of the world.

As far as the Vikings in New Found Land, they must have heard Horace Greeley from the future say "Go West, young man." Either that or they were running away like Eric the Red.

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe


No, the barbarians did know what North was. Magnetic North and North are not far off for most of the world.

As far as the Vikings in New Found Land, they must have heard Horace Greeley from the future say "Go West, young man." Either that or they were running away like Eric the Red.

ORIGINAL: Zorch

Well if you say so. You and Arnold, that is.

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: Zorch

Well if you say so. You and Arnold, that is.

Well if your breaking wind four times is not enough to make him cringe and hold his nose, you aren't eating enough beans!

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe


No, the barbarians did know what North was. Magnetic North and North are not far off for most of the world.

As far as the Vikings in New Found Land, they must have heard Horace Greeley from the future say "Go West, young man." Either that or they were running away like Eric the Red.

Well they weren't then, but they are now. The difference between the two Norths is called Magnetic Declination. It is marked on topographical maps at the bottom, showing what the declination was at the time of printing and how much it is changing annually.

Within the last couple of years the rate of increase in declination has been accelerating rapidly. That conforms with findings by one scientist that over earth's history the magnetic pole has flipped sideways from time to time. His research suggested that we are entering such a period again.

ORIGINAL: Telemecus

INP