Submission + - Did vikings use the same compass as birds and bees (brightsideofnews.com)
An anonymous reader writes: If you've been wondering how Vikings found their way from Scandinavia to America, polarizing light birds and bees use as a season-and-latitude-independent compass calibration reference may be the answer.
In the case of the Vikings, they possibly used one of two crystals, cordierite, also called lolite, of Norway, or calcite of Iceland.
By holding a polarizing crystal up to the sky and rotating it, you can determine the direction of the Sun. Summer, when sailors far north ventured upon the seas, they were confronted with nearly perpetual daylight, preventing them from using the stars to navigate. Light consists of electromagnetic waves that oscillate perpendicular to the direction of the light's travel. When the oscillations all point in the same direction, the light is polarized.
In the case of the Vikings, they possibly used one of two crystals, cordierite, also called lolite, of Norway, or calcite of Iceland.
By holding a polarizing crystal up to the sky and rotating it, you can determine the direction of the Sun. Summer, when sailors far north ventured upon the seas, they were confronted with nearly perpetual daylight, preventing them from using the stars to navigate. Light consists of electromagnetic waves that oscillate perpendicular to the direction of the light's travel. When the oscillations all point in the same direction, the light is polarized.
