AHF                A few thoughts on cricket

1    It is generally recognised that a good cricket commentator need to be able to extemporise to fill in the 'dead bits'.  The following thoughts are aimed at providing that commentator with some alimentary ideation

2    Go to the north pole and climb into your balloon.  Go up a few hundred feet and look down on the land below you.  How do you know that you are at the north pole and not at the south. pole?  Simple; the ground below you rotates in an anticlockwise direction.  That IS the definition of being at the 'north pole'.  Everything that rotates has a north and south pole.  Whether it is the sun, the galaxy or a cricket ball.

3    Not many spin bowlers  consider the fact that they either deliver their missile with a north or south polarity, they use other terminology. But in using true scientific language they would be in order if they stated that they saw the receding missile as a south pole.  The ball would break to the right as seen by the bowler.

4    To move on a bit.  There is a meteorological  effect known as the 'Coriolis effect.  Not only the weather is subject to this effect, but any aircraft that uses inertial navigation is subject to this effect..  Consider that you are over the north pole with the earth spinning under you.  You start to drift in a southerly direction (there is no other direction if you are at the pole).  The aircraft you are in has inertia, this means that it tends to stay where it is, or moves in a  constant direction.  As it drifts southward the ground below the aircraft appears to move to the left.  Or in other words the aircraft drifts westward.  It's not the aircraft that is moving laterally, it is the ground below the aircraft that is moving in the other direction.

5    Modern high speed aircraft that use inertial navigation have to consider this effect when navigation at high latitudes.  Even nuclear submarines need to take the effect into consideration.  Three-dimensional geometry is complicated, particularly when one is moving across the surface of a sphere.  But cricketers are spared having to do complicated 3D calculations because there are not many cricket matches played at either pole.

6    I once asked a Muslim what would be the effect if a true believer found himself at the north pole during Ramadan.  It is a requirement of the Faith that between sun-up and sun-down no food or drink passes his lips during that time.  I pointed out that dawn and dusk would be six months apart.  I should have know better!  With a grin this chappie informed me that as there are normally no Muslims at either pole, so the the person in question would therefore be a traveller.  And the Good Book exempts a number of categories, including travellers. This smart-arse (me) got his cum-uppance!