Re: [Phys-L] animal magnetism?

["John Clement" <clement@hal-pc.org>]

The effect was not evident for male dogs urination, and only for defecation,
or female urination.  The article did not mention any control for the effect
of wind.  It did say that the effect went away when the magnetic field was
disturbed by solar flares.  I was just proposing a possible explanation for
this behavior evolving.  Lining up with the field lines might be beneficial
because then the dog will have lower chance of a tail wind.  The air might
be still at the start of the event, but a wind might pick up during the
event, so the correct orientation could be beneficial.  I doubt anyone has a
really good explanation for the evolution of the effect, if it really
exists.

Dogs might know not to pee into the wind, but sometimes people don't, but
they  usually learn.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX

> John, I suspect even a dog knows not to pee into the wind...
>
>
> On Tue, Jan 14, 2014 at 10:03 PM, John Clement 
> <clement@hal-pc.org> wrote:
>
> > Could it be a wind effect?  Since the wind tends to blow 
> from W to E 
> > this would carry the scent to the side and predators of 
> dogs would be 
> > more easily sensed than if the wind were blowing into the face.  Of 
> > course one might expect that a "tail" wind would be ideal.  But 
> > perhaps the behavior is left over and no longer has any survival 
> > value.  Being able so sense the magnetic field does have some 
> > advantage in being able to navigate.  I understand there 
> are societies 
> > where they use absolute compass directions rather than 
> referring to L 
> > or R and people in these groups always know the direction of the 
> > compass points.  Knowing this may be partially due to humans being 
> > able to sense the magnitic lines.  They pointed out in the article 
> > that there may be a magnetic sense in humans.
> >
> > John M. Clement
> > Houston, TX
> >
> > > On 1/14/2014 1:46 PM, Anthony Lapinski wrote:
> > > > I've heard of birds flying along Earth's magnetic field 
> lines for 
> > > > navigation, but I am baffled by this recent story below:
> www.livescience.com/42317-dogs-poop-along-north-south-magnetic-lines
> > > .h
> > > > tml
> > > True, there are interesting questions of purpose and 
> mechanism, but 
> > > the leading question would concern the survival value of such 
> > > orientation.
> > > Given that dogs sample the odors of other animals, what 
> competitive 
> > > advantage might be gained in this way?
> > >
> > > Brian Whatcott Altus OK
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>
> --
> Todd K. Pedlar
> Associate Professor of Physics
> Luther College, Decorah, IA
> todd.pedlar@luther.edu
> or pedlto01@luther.edu
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