h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The Ozone Layer (homepage) - A689475
Author: vogonpoet is Keeper of Balls in the Air, Professor of Verse - U174321

The Ozone Layer deserves an entry.
Unfortunately I tried to plan one out and soon realised there is rather a lot to say, so now I have 6 entries altogether, all at this moment at various staged of incompleteness.

This entry is the first one, and aims to give the plot so to speak of the entire ozone story, with the other five entries providing stuff like chemistry ect.

Basically at the moment I would like to know what people think of the proposed structure.

I should probably have written a lot more already before putting it into the workshop, but the simple truth is that if I dont tell anyone I am doing it I will probably never get round to finishing it, which would be a shame

So what do you think of the story so far guys?

well, you've picked a deeply stupid thing to write about due to it's sheer complexity. I would suggest reading LOTS of the newest science periodicals because ideas about the ozone change very fast. so fast that you might even have to add a little section for history. ie. which countries did what, when.

the overall structure looks good. you are going to have to be very strict with yourself about keeping things simple and not repeating yourself.


good luck, i dont envy you this one.
what on earth made you pick it?
FABT

Well it seemed like a gaping hole (hmm) in the guide to have no mention at all of the ozone layer, and maybe I kinda thought by writing an entry on it I might push myself to fully get to grips with a lot of the atmospheric chemistry I am going to need to pass my finals this year

Keeping things simple will indeed be the key to whether or not this entry ever gets finished - I think if I keep an eye on the "plot" I ought to be able to write enough to be useful to someone with a burgeoning interest in the ozone layer without having to write a text book on atmospgeric chemistry. I hope .

Thanks for popping by,
vp

gaping hole ------

FABT

Atmospheric Chemistry

That as a special advanced subject in my time (most of the theory was pretty new then) - Moi et bargepole - atmospheric chemistry NON!

Difficult to comment on so far - one thing you might notice is the it's spelt fluoro *not* flouro

The inertness of CFC's is one of the things that makes them so good for ozone depletion. Othe chemicals could be much more potent at this but are so short lived in the atmosphere that they never get high enough or in large enough concentrations to do a lot. CFCs hang about for hundreds of years (potentially) and so build up in the high layers of the atmosphere more or less intact so that cosmic rays can do their thang to them...

Good luck with this



Orcus

orcus - this entry has been enduring a slight period of neglect Im afraid, but Im hoping ot get back on the case soon- and yes, CFC lifetimes will indeed get mentioned - at very end of homepage for a start, to point out that although we have stopped releasing CFCs into the troposhpere, there is still a lot of them floating around just waiting to hitch a lift up into the stratosphere... and it will get a detailed mention in the CFCs effect page... it just might take me a little while - trying to whip these entries together so that nothing is rpeated unnecesarily and so that they are understandable, well, its a bit of a mission .

Come back in about a weeks time and hopefully each entry will be looking a little more ship shape.

vp

Well, I understand what you've written so far and I haven't a clue about chemistry, so you are achieving the 'let's keep it simple so even people like deackie can understand it' aim I'll be keeping my eye out though, the moment my blonde alarm goes off I'll let you know

Well thats encouraging - about 1 tenth of the way through and doing ok...

ok, so things are progressing at a rate many times slower than I was hoping for, but once again I have the bit between my teeth, and now the first of my ozone satellite entries is in my opinion pretty much finished. hurrah.

If anyone whose interested and hasnt died of old age already waiting for me to finish these entries wants to, the complete Natural Stratospheric Ozone entry has joined the Ozone homepage in the writers workshop, and I would be very happy if you all popped in and showered it with critique.

vp - having nightmares tonight I think

Do you still want advice about this entry?

Sure - or even just a tinsy wee bit of encouragement maybe, so that I feel guilty about letting it languish so badly in its current so unfinished state.... have been sadly absent from h2g2 recently, but am currently kinda dipping my toes back into the water a bit, and finishing off my too-numerous ozone entries would be fab really...

Come on! This has the potential to be a really good entry, if you put some more work into it!



Was that good enough? I'll have a look through the entry to see if I can see anything that needs doing.

Have you put anything about the different layers of atmosphere, and why there are different layers?

Thats the perfect amount of encouragement I take it no one has gone and scooped me since I started these entries months ago? No excellent ozone entries already complete?



Yikes, guess I was kinda hoping someone has already explained the atmosphere and I can just reference the entry
Just checking something: you realised A689484, A689493, A689961, A689501 and A689501 also exist? Sadly only two of them are really looking like potential entries at the moment - lots and lots of work still to do.

The author seems to have elvised - flea market?

Flea Market.

Sad how times change... Still dont have any spare time to get these finished. Am back again working in Environmental chemistry now though, so who knows, maybe one day I might scratch that guilty itch these entries give me every now and then....
Who knows, maybe in a year or so I might have some time ...

Looks like no one has yet had the desire to take these out of the Flea Market, please, please leave them there/here, maybe someone with more staying power will come along...

...I shall at least re-read them and check the guide once again to see if I've been scooped....
vp