clearInterval Question

programming flash
1

can I clear a interval in a function from another function?

Here is my current code:

right now I have it like this but this isn’t doing the trick.

startInterval = function() {
var rotateInterval = setInterval(rotateThumbs, 3000);
clearInterval(restartInterval);
}

var world:Array = new Array();
var rotate:Number = 0;
var fl:Number = 2000;
var clip;
var thumbsAmt:Number = 8;
var thumbCount:Number = 0;
var step = (2*Math.PI)/thumbsAmt;

// ====================================================================================
// LOAD THUMBS INTO PANELS / CREATE BUTTONS
// ====================================================================================
loadThumbs = function () {
    var th = 'th'+thumbCount;
    var panel = worldMc.attachMovie("img"+thumbCount+"_mc", th, thumbCount);
    panel.radius = 236;
    panel.angle = step*thumbCount;
    panel.x = Math.cos(panel.angle)*w.radius;
    panel.y = 300;
    panel.z = Math.sin(panel.angle)*w.radius;
    _root.worldMc.th0.loader_mc.loadMovie("horizons.swf");
    _root.worldMc.th1.loader_mc.loadMovie("colorweb.swf");
    _root.worldMc.th2.loader_mc.loadMovie("accessenergy.swf");
    _root.worldMc.th3.loader_mc.loadMovie("musicianshotline.swf");
    _root.worldMc.th4.loader_mc.loadMovie("aspect.swf");
    _root.worldMc.th5.loader_mc.loadMovie("sportsauth.swf");
    _root.worldMc.th6.loader_mc.loadMovie("iowacity.swf");
    _root.worldMc.th7.loader_mc.loadMovie("freedomfestival.swf");
    var numberOfButtons:Number = 8;
    var currentButton = null;
    for (i=0; i<=numberOfButtons; i++) {
        _root.worldMc["th"+i].onRelease = function() {
            currentButton.loader_mc.gotoAndStop(1);
            currentButton.background_mc._visible = true;
            currentButton = this;
            rotate = this.angle;
            clip = this;
            this.loader_mc.gotoAndPlay(1);
            this.background_mc._visible = false;
            clearInterval(rotateInterval);
            var restartInterval = setInterval(startInterval, 10000)
            if(this.loader_mc._currentframe = 10) {
                rotate = currentButton.angle;
                clip = currentButton;
                currentButton.background_mc._visible = true;
            }
        };
    }
    world.push(panel);
    thumbCount++;
    if (thumbCount == thumbsAmt) {
        clearInterval(thumbsInterval);
        clip = worldMc.th0;
        worldMc.onEnterFrame = function() {
            for (var i = 0; i<world.length; i++) {
                var w = world*;
                rotate += (clip._x)/4000;
                var angle = w.angle-rotate;
                var x = Math.cos(angle)*w.radius;
                var y = w.y;
                var z = Math.sin(angle)*w.radius;
                var scale = fl/(fl+z);
                w._x = x*scale;
                w._y = y*scale-320;
                w._xscale = w._yscale=100*scale-15;
                w.swapDepths(Math.ceil(-z));
            }
        };
    }
};
// ====================================================================================

// ====================================================================================
// HANDLE AUTOMATIC ROTATION
// ====================================================================================
var counter:Number = 0;

rotateThumbs = function () {
    counter++;
    if (counter>7) {
        counter = 0;
    } else {
    }
    var fieldName:String = "th"+counter
        rotate = _root.worldMc[fieldName].angle;
        clip = _root.worldMc[fieldName];
        for(a=0; a<8; a++){
            _root.worldMc["th"+a].background_mc._visible = true;
            _root.worldMc["th"+a].loader_mc.gotoAndStop(1);
        }
};
// ====================================================================================

var rotateInterval = setInterval(rotateThumbs, 3000);

startInterval = function() {
    var rotateInterval = setInterval(rotateThumbs, 3000);
    clearInterval(restartInterval);
}

var thumbsInterval = setInterval(loadThumbs, 0);