Tuesday, October 19, 2004
Congratulations - You Didn't Die
On this day:
223 years ago - Major General Lord Charles Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington at Yorktown ending the American Revolutionary War... and our great experiment known as Democracy got a chance.
192 years ago - Napoleon retreated from Moscow.
191 years ago - Napoleon lost the Battle of Leipzig. Today really wasn't a good day for the wee emperor.
131 years ago - Yale, Princeton, Columbia and Rutgers universities drafted the first code of American football rules... Go Chiefs!
19 years ago - The first Blockbuster Video opened its doors... remember Beta?
17 years ago - The Dow Jones average fell 22%, a day known since as Black Monday.
26 years ago - I was born... and the world hasn't been the same since.
Other happy birthdays go out to:
John Lithgow of acting fame who is 59 years old.
Evander Holyfield of boxing fame who is 42 years old.
Trey Parker of South Park fame who is 35 years old.
So far to date, I have traveled approximately 15,192,729,240 miles through the solar system. This does not include the distance traveled due to the Earth's rotation about it's own axis of course. I'll leave that calculation as an exercise for the reader. Here's to a few billion more miles.
Update: Thanks to some persistent fact checkers... I've corrected how far I traveled through our fair solar system.
They might not teach this at MSOE, but
C = 2*PI*R
I'll leave that re-calculation as an exercise for the blogger.
C = 2*PI*R
I'll leave that re-calculation as an exercise for the blogger.
I find it pretty cheap that the above commentor doesn't even leave his name... though I obviously know him given the MSOE reference...
Anyway, I'll point you to the following website where I got my distance numbers at Northwestern University. Please take note of the column labeled "Distance traveled in one complete orbit of the Sun (one 'year.')", and then follow that down to see that Earth travels 149,600,000 miles in one year. If you multiply that by 26... you get 3,889,600,000.
Interestingly enough though, they show that the average distance from the sun is 93,000,000 miles. If you calculate the circumfrence from that, you get 584,335,740. That would lead to a distance traveled over 26 years of 15,192,729,240.
I suppose one could account for the difference by realizing that the Earth's orbit is not circular, but rather eliptical. Of course our orbit is actually very close to a circle, and would not account for this amount of error. So now I'm curious where Northwestern's number is coming from.
Any thoughts?
Anyway, I'll point you to the following website where I got my distance numbers at Northwestern University. Please take note of the column labeled "Distance traveled in one complete orbit of the Sun (one 'year.')", and then follow that down to see that Earth travels 149,600,000 miles in one year. If you multiply that by 26... you get 3,889,600,000.
Interestingly enough though, they show that the average distance from the sun is 93,000,000 miles. If you calculate the circumfrence from that, you get 584,335,740. That would lead to a distance traveled over 26 years of 15,192,729,240.
I suppose one could account for the difference by realizing that the Earth's orbit is not circular, but rather eliptical. Of course our orbit is actually very close to a circle, and would not account for this amount of error. So now I'm curious where Northwestern's number is coming from.
Any thoughts?
You may be just a computer geek but actually a general, all around geek:)
But then again so am I. Your body is 99.997% space. If you calclate the mass of all your particles and use that to fill the area occupied by your body you will find that we are barely here at all. The only reason that your hand does not pass through an object is because of the magnetic repulsion of your electrons and those of the object, not because of your mass. Hmmm. Guess I can put off that diet after all.
But then again so am I. Your body is 99.997% space. If you calclate the mass of all your particles and use that to fill the area occupied by your body you will find that we are barely here at all. The only reason that your hand does not pass through an object is because of the magnetic repulsion of your electrons and those of the object, not because of your mass. Hmmm. Guess I can put off that diet after all.
Actually, the 149,600,000 value comes from a very stupid place. That is the number of kilometers in an AU.
Shame on you for trusting Northwestern. Next time try a real school (like Wisconsin).
Shame on you for trusting Northwestern. Next time try a real school (like Wisconsin).
Alright... Anonymous (who I believe I've identified... George) has given me the clue I needed...
If you work out the conversion of 149,600,000 km to miles, you get about 93,000,000 miles... so in fact I've only traveled 15,192,729,240 miles. I emailed Northwestern to bitch at them. They of all people should have gotten that right.
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If you work out the conversion of 149,600,000 km to miles, you get about 93,000,000 miles... so in fact I've only traveled 15,192,729,240 miles. I emailed Northwestern to bitch at them. They of all people should have gotten that right.
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Name: Nick
Home: Wauwatosa, WI, United States
I'm a Software Consultant in the Milwaukee area. Among various geeky pursuits, I'm also an amateur triathlete, and enjoy rock climbing. I also like to think I'm a political pundit.
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