Thursday, 30 October 2008
Wednesday, 29 October 2008
Tuesday, 28 October 2008
What?
One is two; two is three; three is one (or two); four is one (or many); five is part of four, or simply many. OR it starts with zero, and thus becomes: zero is two, one is three, two is two (or one); three is one (or many), and four is either many or not included.
Confused?
Sunday, 26 October 2008
Wednesday, 22 October 2008
Off Kilter Places
UTC Time UK 07:51AM
UTC - 9:30: French Polynesia 09:21PM Previous Day
UTC - 4:30: Caracas 02:21AM
UTC - 3:30 St John's 04:21AM
UTC+ 3:30 Tehran 10:21AM
UTC+ 4:30 Kabul 11:21AM
UTC + 5:30: Mumbai 12:21PM
UTC + 6:30: Rangoon 1:21PM
UTC + 9:30: Darwin 4:21PM
UTC + 10:30: Adelaide 5:21PM
UTC + 11:30: Norfolk Island 6:21PM
Off by 45 minutes (3 zones)
UTC + 5:45: Kathmandu 12:36PM
UTC + 8:45: Western Australia 3:36PM
UTC + 12:45: Chatham Island 8:36PM
Tuesday, 21 October 2008
Parsecs
Parsec stands for Parallax Arc Second, and is a measure of astronomical distances approximately equal to 3.26163626 light years. The parsec is a useful unit of measurement because it directly translates a measurable stellar phenomenon into a distance measurement.
Parallax is the name given to the apparent movement of an object against its background as the observer's viewing angle changes.
Objects and distances in the sky can not be measured in centimeters or inches. Instead, distances in the sky are measured in terms of how much of the sky's arc they cover. For most objects, this is on the order of arcseconds — 1/3600 of a degree. The Sun, for example is about 1,900 arcseconds in diameter, and the Moon is only slightly smaller at 1,800 arcseconds. One arcsecond is just over one mile on the Moon as seen from Earth.
The closest star to the Sun, Proxima Centauri, has a measurable parallax of about 0.77 arcseconds, so it is about 1.3 parsecs, or 4.2 light years, away.
The idea of stellar parallax was first proposed by the Greek astronomer Hipparchus (190–120 BC), most famous for developing the apparent magnitude classification for the brightness of stars. The heliocentric and geocentric theories of the solar system were being debated at the time, and Hipparchus realized that if the Earth did indeed orbit around the Sun, there should be observable parallax in the stars, assuming the stars are not infinitely far away. Unfortunately, without the aid of telescopes, Hipparchus was not able to measure any parallax in the stars and concluded the geocentric model was correct.
The unaided human eye has a resolution of about 60 arcseconds (opinions vary widely), far too large to detect stellar parallax. By comparison, the Hubble Space Telescope has a resolution of about 0.05 arcseconds (20 parsecs, or 65 light years)
(to put that in perspective, there are about 1,000 stars within 50 light years, 133 of which are visible to the naked eye).
t was not until 1838 that the German astronomer Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel was the first person to be able to measure stellar parallax.
Monday, 20 October 2008
Time and Motion
There are exactly 86,400 seconds in each day.
The circumference of the Earth is 40,075.16km at the equator.
Starting at 12:00 Noon GMT (Midnight at the International Date Line),
the day sweeps by at the brisk pace of 463.83meters/ second;
27,829.97 meters/ minute; or 1669.80km/ hour
Sunday, 19 October 2008
End of Time?
Year: 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029, 2030, 2031, 2032, 2033, 2034, 2035, 2036, 2037, 2038, 2039, 2040, 2041, 2042, 2043, 2044, 2045, 2046, 2047, 2048, 2049, 2050, 2051, 2052, 2053, 2054, 2055, 2056, 2057, 2058, 2059, 2060, 2061, 2062, 2063, 2064, 2065, 2066, 2067, 2068, 2069, 2070, 2071, 2072, 2073, 2074, 2075, 2076, 2077, 2078, 2079, 2080, 2081, 2082, 2083, 2084, 2085, 2086, 2087, 2088, 2089, 2090, 2091, 2092, 2093, 2094, 2095, 2096, 2097, 2098, 2099, 2100, 2101, 2102, 2103, 2104, 2105, 2106, 2107, 2108, 2109, 2110, 2111, 2112, 2113, 2114, 2115, 2116, 2117, 2118, 2119, 2120, 2121, 2122, 2123, 2124, 2125, 2126, 2127, 2128, 2129, 2130, 2131, 2132, 2133, 2134, 2135, 2136, 2137, 2138, 2139, 2140, 2141, 2142, 2143, 2144, 2145, 2146, 2147, 2148, 2149, 2150, 2151, 2152, 2153, 2154, 2155, 2156, 2157, 2158, 2159, 2160, 2161, 2162, 2163, 2164, 2165, 2166, 2167, 2168, 2169, 2170, 2171, 2172, 2173, 2174, 2175, 2176, 2177, 2178, 2179, 2180, 2182, 2182, 2183, 2184, 2185, 2186, 2187, 2188, 2189, 2190, 2191, 2192, 2193, 2194, 2195, 2196, 2197, 2198, 2199, 2200, 2201, 2202, 2203, 2204, 2205, 2206, 2207, 2208, 2209, 2210, 2211, 2212, 2213, 2214, 2215, 2216, 2217, 2218, 2219, 2220, 2221, 2222, 2223, 2224, 2225, 2226, 2227, 2228, 2229, 2230, 2231, 2232, 2233, 2234, 2235, 2236, 2237, 2238, 2239, 2240, 2241, 2242, 2243, 2244, 2245, 2246, 2247, 2248, 2249, 2250, 2251, 2252, 2253, 2254, 2256, 2257, 2258, 2259, 2260, 2261, 2262, 2263, 2264, 2265, 2266, 2267, 2268, 2269, 2270, 2271, 2272, 2273, 2274, 2275, 2276, 2277, 2278, 2279, 2280, 2281, 2282, 2283, 2284, 2285, 2286, 2287, 2288, 2289, 2290, 2291, 2292, 2293, 2294, 2295, 2296, 2297, 2298, 2299, 2300, 2301, 2302, 2303, 2304, 2305, 2306, 2307, 2308, 2309, 2310, 2311, 2312, 2313, 2314, 2315, 2316, 2317, 2318, 2319, 2320, 2321, 2322, 2323, 2324, 2325, 2326, 2327, 2328, 2329, 2330, 2331, 2332, 2333, 2334, 2335, 2336, 2337, 2338, 2339, 2340, 2341, 2342, 2343, 2344, 2345, 2346, 2347, 2348, 2349, 2350, 2351, 2352, 2353, 2354, 2355, 2356, 2357, 2358, 2359, 0000?
Friday, 17 October 2008
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